1. Home
  2. music
  3. 126605-83717

Rolling Stones Mono Box Set (lp or cd)

I wanted to get the ball rolling. I thought that including both formats here would be beneficial to the entire discussion. I personally have little experience with the Rolling Stones. However, I think I can add an opinion in the form of having heard lots of music from this era and how this box relates to the Beatles Mono Box. I'm currently using my stereo cart. I've listened to the first 5 lps in chronological order.

One thing that has stood out to me is how consistent these 5 lps are in sound quality. ( "Out Of Our Heads", US has more pronounced bass, haven't listened to the UK yet.) This is kind of unusual in my listening experience. Compared to the Beatles Mono box which wasn't as consistent, album to album. I find the detail, the ambient retrieval, and the bass overall to be very good. What bothers me is I feel it is recorded too hot as well as I feel the overall sound seems somewhat very slightly artificial. ( I never felt this way listening to the Beatles Mono box). These last two issues may have to do with the re-mastering chain. It may be the quality of the mics, the recording venue, etc...I don't know. I don't have the originals to compare. There is the dimensional character of the soundstage that is very nice as was the Beatles. The vinyl itself is super quiet but I see that a few of these will need to be flattened. So far, there isn't an pressed "off-center" issue.
astro58go
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
4,908 posts
 

Halleluiah! Tostado, I am so weary of The Stones continuing to be held up as The Greatest blah blah blah long after they started sucking. Which was a long, long time ago. Why they weren’t written off after they put out a disco album is an absolute mystery to me.

I don’t expect 1960’s Pop or Rock albums to sound very good. As Pete Townshend said, they were made to sound "good" (whatever that means) on car radios. About the worst sounding are The Who albums prior to Tommy. So thin and brittle, nothing like they sounded live, which was extremely punchy (thanks to Keith Moon and John Entwistle, who sounded SO awesome!), like a direct-to-disc LP and the Decca/London cartridge.

geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
I opine the SQ of Sticky Fingers is actually quite superior to that of Abbey Road. Even the notorious Mobile Fidelity Sticky Fingers, a big big sound level underachiever, is nothing short of spectacular in tone and frequency response and resolution. What the Beatles albums lacked generally speaking was dynamic range as revealed in the Unofficial Dynamic Range Database.

jafant's avatar
jafant
10,525 posts
 
America's greatest rock n roll band- Aerosmith.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
jafant
4,266 posts
10-20-2016 4:47pm
America’s greatest rock n roll band- Aerosmith.

I will say Stephen Tyler appears to have an even bigger mouth than Mick Jagger. Having said that, Permanent Vacation rocks.
astro58go OP
542 posts
 
jafant made reference to "Let It Bleed". I haven't listened that far into the mono box set yet. I do have the stereo (lp) "LIB" circa 2003 from the DSD remastering that I bought after hearing the SACD at a local dealer years ago through a Musical Fidelity SACD player, MF amp, Wilson speakers. I was very impressed then. That lp sounds very good. Wide soundstage, great separation, detailed without sounding too hot.
More to discover