Just picked up the French white vinyl SMO. For the money I paid I was a little nervous but it sounds awesome. My only previous reference for the stereo is the old orange label US capitol and the purple label Wally cut (which is very good and the best I had previously heard)...the white vinyl easily beats it. It just has more of everything.
Lots of great copies in people's collections around here, nice to see. I'd say that my absolute best copy of the White Album, is the -1/-1/-3/-1 that came with my 1978 UK blue box. My second-best would be the 1985 German DMM on white vinyl. My worst copy was an early 70's U.S. SWBO Apple - pitched it in the trash, it was that bad.
I hope I haven't missed this somewhere in the last 33 pages. Toggling between here and Discogs I'm getting a headache and going cross-eyed! Here goes : Lots of recommendations for the '85 German white White DMM, including Mike Fremer. How about the '78 German white White DMM? Seems to me that's early enough to still be analog (?) Thinking he has an '85 (I realized it's actually a '78) today I messaged a Discogs seller about the play quality of his '78. Before I apologize and thank him for his time would a clean '78 be a good buy? (NM, approx. $120.) My only reference for some years is an infrequent listen to my Mint-y MoFi which I remember thinking was pretty good. (I'll re-listen tonight.) Dave Mac
I'm not certain of this, but it looks to me like the '78 & '85 (I'm always very suspicious of dates in Discogs) may be the same cut - except the supposed '85 has some additional stuff written in the dead wax (which is not uncommon for a later pressing from the same lacquers). For what it's worth, I've never heard either. I've got a number of different UK presses (original, 70's re-issues, white vinyl export, etc) so I never bothered with the W.Ger DMM.
Hello again Marc! I'm thinking I agree that they are probably the same versions issued a few years apart. Don't see anything on Ebay but the Discogs listings for the '85 are (to me) obscenely expensive. I think I have to go for it. See ya later! Dave Mac
Wait up Dave ! I’m not sure that info is correct Beatles White Album - Direct Metal Master - Stunning This thread concludes there was no DMM Beatles in the 70s. Quote from the mastering engineer “yes we started DMM-Cutting in Cologne early in 1983. First we did some tests in Cutting and Pressing. We used the Beatles Red and Blue double Album for these tests to convince EMI Management in London to switch over to DMM-technology. These Test Pressings were not released. In the beginning we used DMM only for Classical music, then around 1984 we got a second DMM-machine and started to use it for Pop/Rock repertoire. Also at this time i started to re-cut Beatles and other Back-catalogue stuff using DMM. Mainly this was not mentioned on the Covers, so there are a lot of German pressings that were made with DMM and therefore sound much better. Definitly no DMM-Cuttings were made in the 70s.”
I remember being warned somewhere on SH that there’s at least one 80s German DMM that isn’t from analogue.
One version I think sounds fantastic is the German second press. It has a nice warm sound and I prefer it to my early U.K. and a later mid-70s U.K. I think some of the other Germans get a lot of mentions here, too, but this one shouldn't be overlooked. The Beatles - The Beatles I don't know how it differs from the other Germans that have the same gold 'Deutscher Schallplattenpreis' sticker, but I'd love to get hold of a mint copy
Too late! The trigger be pulled. The guy actually offered to drop the price by $20! So $100 shipped. That's pretty expensive for me for one album but sometimes you do what you gotta do. But thank you "timnor," your info puts all this under a bright light and I'd say clears things up nicely. Jeez, and I thought it was Mom who has Alzheimer's. Pay attention much, Dave? (Touche, eh "marc"?) It looks like once again I ass-u-me-d that I knew what I was doing. Damn Beatles albums. It's like a freakin' drug. I tell you, it messes with your mind! Well, it's painfully obvious that the '78 listing I just bought shows no mention whatsoever of "DMM." In fact, the only "DMM" White Album LP listings I see on Discogs are the '85 German Apple and an '86 German Parlophone. So it looks like I'm getting a '78 German analog white vinyl reissue of the White Album. That can't be a bad thing, right? Since the prices I've seen for the highly touted '85 DMM are so ridiculous I think I would have bought this one anyway. I mean, I have to have something decent to compare to my MoFi. Which, by the way, I did listen to again last night. At least on my system I didn't find the mids to be "sucked out" at all. In fact, I found the upper mids and highs to be a bit too bright and sibilant. Bass was quite good for the most part, depending on the song. Dropped the tail a bit on the Shelter 501 and it helped a little with the sibilance. OK, I am hereby spanked as necessary for not seeing what was right in front of me and making an a** of me, if not the collective "u." I guess I'll post a comparison to the MoFi in a week or so. Cheers all, Dave Mac
I have the 1986 German black vinyl DMM. It's been a while since I've listened to it but I remember it sounding really bad. It's my least favorite copy.
Hey Dave, I'm sure you're copy is going to sound just fine. It's a complicated subject for sure and not an easy one to navigate so don't be too hard on yourself. I only found out about this because I purchased a white vinyl DMM that seemed to have been placed in a non DMM sleeve. This was the during the years before prices shot up. I'll keep a look out for a DMM for you. Interested to read your comparison of the Mofi vs new purchase.
Hi timnor, I'm sure you're right that I'll be quite happy with it. Reading about all the "normal" and specialized releases - UK, German, French, Japanese, US, analog, DMM, digital, black, white, red, polka-dot - and all the reviews, comparisons, preferences, and proclamations, whew, it makes your head spin. I was intrigued by Mike Fremer's recommendation of the '85 DMM as having it's own issues but having the highest overall "score." I guess I got "German DMM" in my head and just couldn't shake it loose. What made me kick myself was after coming down on marcfeld69 for something similar in a related thread I turn around and do practically the same thing I gave him grief about. I'm retired a couple years now but spent almost 40 years dealing all day every day with numbers and people who couldn't handle them. Packing lists, part #s, catalog #s, item descriptions, receiving, purchasing, inventory, you name it. I even ran a couple record stores back in the day. I have an easy blush response as it is but my face felt like a beaming red beacon in the night when I misread/misinterpreted the Discogs listing not once but several times. Sigh. But I'm OK now. Can I come out of my room yet? After reading so many negatives about the MoFi, which has been my only copy for years (still Mint-y!), I was kinda surprise that it sounded, not great, but pretty good. The rockers were definitely in-yer-face and even the quieter stuff was bright but I was able to dial back the upper mids/highs to tame it just a bit. I too am looking forward hearing the "new" one. Well, back at it. Been snowing most of the afternoon here around D.C. so I've been doing laundry and cleaning records. It's been too warm for it to stick to the streets but the trees and grass look purty. Not a bad Saturday. Dave Mac
Good to hear Dave, Come out of your room. Or carry on singing In My Room ! It's snowing too in the deep south of Germany and I've been cleaning too. An original David Ackles Elektra LP. Don't know why but 90% of my my music collection is probably American artists. Today I purchased a Thorens TD 145 MK II from a retired guy in a local village. He'd had a stroke some years back and hobbled up the stairs. Snow started falling. Turned out he used to work in the same place as I do. The turntable was his Dads. It was probably not worth the price I paid but the moment was worth not spoiling with discussions about the cost. The White album will never be an audiophiles dream I guess. I have a UK mono and stereo, German 1st press and white DMM. My ears are shot and I can't say I hear the difference anymore. Ah but the music never dims. I wait for I've got blisters on my fingers. I've even come to love number 9, number 9, number 9. My daughter who is now nearly 18 walked in the lounge a few years ago holding the white album and said "Sgt Peppers is good but this is great". Job done. Time for bed. Not a bad Saturday.
Someone posted a review of various White Albums a while ago and mentioned the German white vinyl DMM from 1985 , amongst some of the earlier and later pressings , I.E , the 2012 stereo and the 2014 mono , quite a long post and imformatitive , but can't find the post and have gone through all 33 pages of this, anyone?.
the White Album, more than just about any album I can think of, has extreme variations from pressing to pressing and country to country. I think the original US copies are awful. Didn't care at the time it came out of course, because the music is often sublime. In the early 70's I got a French copy that I thought sounded worlds better (it did) then later, sorta started collecting every press from every country I could find. So, I probably have about 30 odd copies. Not to belabor each one, but in a nutshell, these are my toppermost of the poppermost: for mono: 1982 Japan red vinyl. shockingly present sound IMO. new reissue from the white box: I really, really like it. 1968 UK original: accurate representation of the material but somewhat lacking in sound, IMO it's due to so much loud music being cut with such long sides. for stereo: 1978 UK white vinyl, just hands down great...as good as this original mix is going to get IMO. DMM german white vinyl. Not accurate completely in representation but I like the sound on this a lot. MOFI - somewhat smiley eq but it was still a revelation back in the day
Does anybody know if these 1978 White Vinyl Stampers were re-used on any of the black vinyl versions that came after? Matrix / Runout (Side 1, written): YEX 709 Matrix / Runout (Side 2, written): YEX 710 Matrix / Runout (Side 3, written): YEX 711 Matrix / Runout (Side 4, written): YEX 712
Yes...those you mentioned I have and all really do sing! A Hard Days Night & HELP! MONO on Parlophone are darn nice also. I have two vinyl copies of the embossed/numbered White album and it's still the best.
As mentioned a couple of times earlier in this thread there is no such thing as a "1978 German white vinyl DMM White Album". Mucho misinformation out there on Discogs and other sites. That one was cut on a lacquer lathe, definitely not DMM. Electrola Germany first started using their brand new VMS82 DMM lathe in 1983 and the subsequent white vinyl version released in 1985 was cut on copper disc (DMM) This is a totally different mastering to the 1978 LP although others here still seem to think otherwise. It's easy to distinguish between the 2 as the 1985 version has the DMM logo displayed prominently on the record label.
Thanks Ben. I definitely stand corrected. Thinking the '78 was a DMM was a blatant and dumb mistake on my part when flipping back and forth between Discogs listings. See"timnor's" and my exchange quoted above from several posts back on this page where he provided a link from an "unimpeachable source" at EMI. Apparently I was cross-eyed and had a brain fart. I'm not a knowledgeable hardcore Beatles collector as many here are and just didn't catch my mistake.
