Beatles

The Beatles always stood apart from their peers, a self-evident statement that sadly extended to the treatment of their catalog in the digital age. Where all their peers from the Byrds to the Who have had their catalogs remastered and reissued in deluxe editions, sometimes several times, the Beatles remained stuck in the early days of digital, their 14 albums plus Past Masters singles collection remaining untouched since 1987. Anniversaries came and went, but no remasters arrived until the release of the video game The Beatles Rockband pushed a long-overdue revamping of the band's entire catalog into the stores on 9-9-09. This reissue campaign corrects almost all the problems of the original 1987 CDs: the sound and artwork are improved, and all the original mono and stereo mixes finally see the light of day. Naturally, it's possible to quibble about some details of the presentation, particularly the decision to split the reissue into two separate box sets…

Dr. Ebbetts specializes in releasing digital remasterings from long-deleted and hard-to-obtain vinyl records, particularly issues from the audiophile Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs (MFSL) label. Although the Ebbetts catalogue has many artists, it is most known for Beatles CDs transferred from the best quality MFSL releases, US releases and mono vinyl sources. While lables like Millenium, BEAT, Mirror Spock and Fabulous Sound Labs (FSL) also issue 'needle drops' of Beatles vinyl, Dr. Ebbetts is regarded by many audiophiles as being the highest quality. For those interested in the technical, one source close to the Dr says that Ebbetts says that he uses no noise reduction and that there's no magic formula…just a good ear and patience.