On Wed, 17 Mar 2004, "Mitch Tyo" <dexteron0@hotmail.com> said the following: "I personally like that any CD releases of Beatles records keep exactly what was in the record sleeve when it was originally released. If I want more information about the albums, or about what was going on with the band at the time, I can research it on my own; there are numerous resourses for that already. What matters most is the music, and as long as that remains intact, I'm satisfied." Mitch, I agree with you, the problem is, as the links I posted demonstrate, many peole feel the it's the music, not the packaging that *is* the main problem. Not only has the technology for the digitial transfer of analoge tapes improved over the years, but there are people out there who have learned to use that technology very artfully and produced some stunning reissues of material of similar vintage. Just give a listen some time to Steve Hoffman's work on the DCC gold reissues of a few Beach Boys disks, the work he did for the same label on the early McCartney catalogue, or his recent, hybrid CD/SACD's of CCR and the Zombies. It's a shame that someone like Hoffman (and he's by no means the only talented remastering engineer out there) has not been given a crack at the Beatles. The sound is all that matters to me, and just a quick listen even to some of the bootleg material out there, most of it a few generations removed from the master tapes themselves, but with no aggressive EQ, hypercompression, or noise reduction, shows just how good those original tapes could sound. Of the available CD's only the two "Past Masters" disks, the EP Boxed set, and a few other scattered bits and pieces sound anything like as good as they could. Even those, which are apparently flat transfers from the master tapes, could sound much better now with the right equipment in the hands of a good remasterer. L. ======================== Louis Schwartz Associate Professor of English University of Richmond Richmond, VA 23173 (804) 289-8315 lschwart@richmond.edu