Starting out- a Beatles question

Lucky you! You get to begin a fantastic voyage. When I started out I was a teenager too. My advice is to go to your local indoor flea markets, outdoor flea markets, thrift stores such as goodwill, and small town antique stores. Explore places where records are not the main draw for business. At your age I had amassed quite a collection I had better records than most of the adult audiophiles. It will take time and patience. Also don't pass up an imperfect copy of something, you can always replaceit later. Right now records are glutting many of these stores. I recently picked up the first two Jimmy Hendrix records in fantastic condition for ten bucks each. Some time back got a mint English copy of Pink Floyds Nice Pair for 15 bucks. These came from a local indoor flea market. Happy hunting!!

My suggestion is to get The Beatles in Mono, the recent reissue (09/09/09) box set, which received great reviews even from analog enthusiasts. I count myself in that category and I really enjoy this set. This set does not include Abbey Road and Let it Be since they didn't have a mono master, but Apple/EMI released good stereo CD remasters at the same time as the mono box set.

If you want vinyl, then I highly suggest finding a good set of BC-13, "The Beatles Collection", on eBay which might run you $250 - $350. These are stereo and they were mixed from the original analog masters. That works out to around $20 - $25 per disc which is not bad considering what you're getting.

The MFSL box runs around 3 to 4 times as much (!) and based on what I've read, a lot of people actually prefer BC-13 to MFSL. I had the MFSL on Rubber Soul and it was good but I wouldn't pay that much to get it when I can get BC-13 for far less.

I have both the mono CD box set and BC-13 and I enjoy them both but I often finding myself favoring the monos on CD (gasp!) because I like the mono mix better. You can read a ton on the mono-vs-stereo debate. My take is that the Beatles, like many rock bands and jazz combos in the 1960s, overdid early stereo with too much of the stereo ping-pong effect and too much split (one instrument totally on the left, another instrument totally on the right). As stereo matured, recordings had a more natural blend between channels with less left/right extreme, but unfortunately I don't hear that on the Beatles catalog. So, for that reason, I prefer the monos because the stereo mixes are too unnatural sounding to my ears.

If your main objective is musical enjoyment (as opposed to the hunt for collectible original releases), then the recommendations above will serve you well.

If you spend enough time researching this, you'll find people who recommend original releases over the above, but you'll have a hard time searching for these in excellent condition and you'll pay a lot more and spend a ton of effort to get what might not be a very substantial improvement. If you enjoy the quest, then go for it, but I take it from your original post that you just want to listen to the music.

The fab four do carry a premium price on wax...especially for mono...if u must go vinyl....abbey road on capital new...or used red or blue comps on Apple...these are dbl lps

The Beatles Yellow Submarine Soundtrack is available on vinyl as an import. It is a recent remaster and is in my opinion the best example of how good The Beatles can sound on vinyl. I like it better than all my MoFi's, mono imports, etc..

Get Revolver! Better on vinyl, but I have both because I don't like cleaning records. I don't like cleaning anything!