Review: The Beatles Mobile Fidelity Box Set

[@philharding3289]

Welcome back! You certainly re-inspired my love of vinyl during covid. Still my favourite reviews on KZbin.

[@williamtyler9123]

First, I'm glad you’re making videos again. Keep it up. Second this box set always held a place in my heart. It was my dad's and he got it when it came out. I always saw it behind the glass on the top shelf of his record collection growing up and on special occasions he would take it out and listen to some of it with me. Now I have it at my house and I love listening to it and the memories it brings. On the technical side, I agree with your comments, they sound great. I also have the 70s blue box and don't notice too many differences unless I A/B them back to back. I think it's a fun piece of history.

[@winstonoreggae6332]

EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT REVIEW. I'm glad you´re back with your great videos Brian.

[@TommyT6219]

What a great review, Brian! It’s nice to hear an honest review on this box, album by album. Congrats on finding this box at a reasonable price!

[@Tsr10]

Hi Brian. I really appreciated your review review... Great job. My box set was my dad's which he left to me when he passed away. When it went on sale, we drove down to Tower Records in Manhattan from Connecticut to buy it. Well worth the 4 hour round trip! It's the center piece of my collection.

[@R3TR0R4V3]

$300 bucks? Wow man, you made out like a bandit. What a score! 😎 I only own the MFSL Abbey Road, and while it does sound great, I think the original UK 1st press smokes it. I'd love it hear the others though, especially Sgt Pepper and the UHQR version. They're so pricey though.. I doubt I'll ever own one, unless I got a stellar deal. Ya never know! 😉 ✌️

[@rundoetx]

I agree. The only MSFL Beatles album that I own is Abbey Road and I never play it. If Im going to listen to Abbey Road 35:07 , I play my first run American album or my very early British copy. I bought my copy new, mail ordered to my home, and was super dissapointed with the sound. Especially after owning other artists discs that were incredible sounding.

[@4-dman464]

9:21 Bobcat on your shoulder! 19:30 REVOLVER being the hardest pressing to get right - - that's interesting, I wonder why that is. Can't just be psychedelia, as PEPPER has more of that... But maybe REVOLVER has a greater range of music, close to garage songs sometimes, then a stringent string quartet, then a sound-effects-laden song, then boogie, then multiple harmonies, then reverse tape loops.. Maybe The Beatles range is more diverse on REVOLVER than any other LP. Maybe panning the range of all that on one disc makes doing justice to each song without impeding other songs on the same disc a tough job? (I don't know if that part of it is a production headache or a pressing headache.)

[@anthonyvigliotti6560]

Spot-on review. I have this box and for the most part, love it. The "artwork" on each individual album sleeve not only shows us a piece of history but the notes on the reel boxes provide us with valuable info as to when and where these tapes were used. IMHO, the whole issue about "bass boost" and "smiley-face eq" has been blown out of proportion. Even George Martin himself in 1976 with the Anerican issue of the "Rock And Roll Music" compilation re-eq'd and "filtered". Glad i bought this box when it first came out and will not part with it. Good job on the review! 👍

[@kev5621]

Finally an honest review of this box. I have it as well as all the original UK records. I have no problem with the bass boost on the mofi box. Giles Martin and company have been boosting the bass and high end as long as they’ve had control of the catalog

[@neilafacci5833]

I would be interesting if it was reissued again correcting some of the faults and adding a record including the singles . I didn’t buy this at the time having bought the Japanese blue boxset around 1978-1979 . I still own my original vinyl Beatles records . Thanks for the video .

[@glen-scott]

Excellent, honest review. I think you summed up the pros and cons of this set very nicely. I have this boxset, but as of this week I am selling the individual records on eBay as it was sitting on my shelf gathering dust. I found I was never reaching for any of the titles, because, in my opinion, all sound worse than those in my UK BC13 Blue box. You are right that there is extra clarity to the vocals, particularly on those earlier titles, but the smiley face mastering really robs the music of a lot of the excitement that you get from earlier pressings. There are aspects to the packaging that are also frustrating - the tape box photographs are interesting, but why did they not put these in the book rather than using them as covers? And the covers they use in the book are sometimes the Mono rather than Stereo versions (e.g. Revolver). I'd also agree with your assessment about the value of this set -- it really is not worth the money it goes for. Given MFSL were given access to the original master tapes, it has to be viewed as a huge missed opportunity.

[@Stuck_in_the_70s]

Great video. Personally I love the MFSL Beatles pressings I tend to reach for them when I want to listen to the Beatles in stereo - and take the load off my early UK pressings. I have the 2014 Mono box set and listen to that a lot as well, but I think the MOFI gets a bad rap mainly from people who haven’t heard it. Abbey Road doesn’t sound as good as my UK first press, but it’s pretty darn good on my system. MMT is an obvious anomaly I have several pressings of it and it’s one of the better sounding versions I have (the Horzu is #1 in my opinion) but then you get to the last 3 tracks and it’s a disaster - turn it off quick!! Beatles for Sale the MFSL is my favourite pressing of that album.

[@JimmyLem]

Bob the cat! I'm a follower of the Beatles' underdog albums. In the early 80s, it was Revolver - everyone always talked about how great Pepper was. Then after that, it was Rubber Soul. Also in the mix was the discovery of how (most) of the British albums were "better," which led me to Park Row in NYC to pay a little extra for French, UK or Canadian copies. Then CD's came out and all that was kind of level again. Then I focused on For Sale. I really love that album. Other opinions - Both Rubber Souls are very good. My first was a public library cassette US copy, so maybe I like that one better. But I really like how strongly Nowhere Man and If I Needed Someone took the album into being more balanced than being more folk. I really have low regard for both versions of Help - the US one is silly with the film songs on there and the UK one ends weird with Yesterday and then Dizzie Miss Lizzie. It seems like they were forcing the "Twist And Shout" formula on there. I have some distaste for Beatles covers - again, I think in the CD era, I discovered how much more I liked when the Stones did "rock" covers - and it probably was because they were mono (like 12x5). Dizzy Miss Lizzie in stereo is just tough for me to really get into, it's way too thin (on the 80s CDs). Mr. Postman was a little weak and Roll Over Beethoven, too, but at least they were mono on that first CD issue.

[@invisibleray6987]

I was offered this in 1982 by the record shop owner, I asked the price, it was fxcking expensive, I weighed it out for the long term, and thought the artwork is crap

[@BrianBringelson]

Who in the world can be right all the right time?

[@jldraw]

@@BrianBringelsonI know I was wrong make it right?

[@BrianBringelson]

@@jldraw righttttttttt

[@willgilbert1969]

I have one of them and it's in great shape.

[@davepounds8924]

I had a chance to purchase the Mobile Fidelity box a few years back but I decided not to because that box has mixed reviews about the quality of it Nice looking box though

[@Onteo1]

I’m very curious about the actual masters used on this set and subsequent individual releases. Do you have any later Beatles Mofi albums to compare matrix numbers? Are they the same ? I bought the box when it came out because of the Abbey road release a few years before. My box’s Abbey and that single release do have the same dead wax numbers. I have always assumed that they used the same masters from the box set for the later single releases. Never thought to check my UHQR Pepper with the box set, although I think they were both released the same year. When new these box sets cost about $550.00. My large local record shop said they pressed these to 10,000. I put my order in asap and ended up with one in the 7,000 range. Demand was so high the pressed another 5,000 and then another, etc. not sure if the total production went as high as 25,000 although I’m pretty sure it did go to 20,000 as yours was in that last (?) run from 15-20. In its day it was the greatest sounding set we had ever heard. Still enjoy it today. Great overview.

[@richardleclear]

Great review, and great price on your copy as well! Question though, in your mind and ears, is there any sonic difference between the MOFI Box Set lps and the stand-alone MOFI individual lps, or were they straight reissues?

[@BrianBringelson]

That’s a great question. I haven’t really compared them A/B but I think I’ll do it soon. I know my Abbey Road stand-alone had the same stampers as the one in the box.

[@terrycostello9517]

I think the box has thinner vinyl

[@stuartshire]

I thought rarities was included in this box ?

[@BrianBringelson]

i think you're thinking of the blue box released in 1978

[@stuartshire]

@@BrianBringelson yes indeed , I just thought they would have the same content 👍

[@stuartshire]

@@BrianBringelson the blue box came out in 81/82 yeah ?

[@BrianBringelson]

@@stuartshire Nov 78 in the US and Dec 78 in the UK. They made them until 1986