Audiophile Recommendations
The Beatles Sound Quality Guide: Revolver (Featuring the Canadian Disque Americ CD)
Selecting the best digital version isn’t as easy as you might think
Welcome to my ongoing research on the best-sounding Beatles albums on digital formats. This highly technical discussion will either be a tedious journey that you wish to skip or a fascinating look at their CDs and high-resolution files.
Revolver has become the band’s most revered album in many respected rankings, displacing Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which held the title for decades prior. I have selected it as the inaugural title in this series in recognition of its hallowed place in the Beatles’ catalog.
I judged these different versions by analyzing multiple tracks in an a/b comparison to determine which sounded the best. I took dynamic range readings (DR) so that you can consider that as one factor in deciding which version you want if that matters to you (it matters to me).
I have compared all known official digital releases of the original stereo mix, and I will discuss all four variations, along with preferences and the reasoning behind my recommendations. I am limiting the scope of this undertaking to the original mix of the stereo versions, so you will not see any discussion of the 2022 remix, Atmos, or mono releases here. I plan to do a separate entry about the digital mono releases. Most of the versions that I compared here are out of print. However, they can be found used on websites like Discogs, eBay, or Amazon.
Any comparison of masterings involves a basic value judgment on which people base their judgment. What I value above all is the sound of the master tapes. That is what I want to hear, whether it has tape hiss, flutter, wow, or other warts. I do not want some remastering engineer deciding for me that something that George Martin and The Beatles decided they wanted to release had “defects” that needed a more modern hand in “correcting.”
Reference shortcuts
I will refer to the following identification shortcuts throughout, so take a deep breath.
Mastering 1: 1987 original release (worldwide) with no-noise
Variation 1: Early 1990s (possibly earlier) Canadian version without no-noise (not a new remaster, but a different tape transfer)
Mastering 2: 2009 remaster
Variation 2: 2009 remaster in high resolution (24/44) (same mastering as mastering 2)
All but mastering 2 are out-of-print.
The Mysterious Canadian CD “Secret pre-master”
Putting aside label variations, the original stereo mix of Revolver has had four different digital variations (but only two masterings). The first came out on April 30, 1987, and the second was on September 9, 2009. Variation 1 (Canadian) was in print in the early 1990s, but I have been unable to confirm the exact date or whether any came out earlier.
I will give away the farm at the beginning of this piece and declare that the Disque Americ CD (variation 1) is the one to get if you’re interested in the most natural, dynamic-sounding version. There is a small but important mastering difference between the standard 1987 worldwide-release CD and the Canadian Disque Americ variation.
Among the four masterings/variations, the Disque Americ CD is the most faithful to the master tapes. It does not contain the noise-reduction or helped fades that mar the 1987 CD. It does not contain the revisionist-added EQ and added compression from which the 2009 suffers.
Tape hiss
The 1987 CD has “helped fades.” Helped fades are a process whereby an engineer ever-so-slightly prematurely fades a song while using noise reduction to get rid of tape hiss during the silence/space between tracks. The silence on the 1987 CD is artificially lowered to digital zero.
Noise reduction has now fallen out of favor as an industry standard, but it was used liberally on many masterings during the mid- to late years of the CD era. It is an automated process intended to remove tape hiss, but it introduces small but annoying audio artifacts. These artifacts are more objectionable than the hiss it was trying to remove in the first place.
What is it with this Disque Americ CD anyway?
It is unknown why Canada received a different digital master than the rest of the world or exactly when it happened. This mastering is long out of print, as EMI withdrew it as soon as they found out about it and replaced the unique Canadian master with the standard worldwide master. This was deliberately done quietly, with no fanfare. It wasn’t until decades later that this mistake was widely “discovered,” resulting in talk on music forums and scrambling on eBay for the hard-to-find CD.
How do I identify and obtain the Disque Americ CD?
Discogs and eBay are probably your best bets if you want to buy the Disque Americ CD. However, it, shall we say…circulates. There are those attached to physical media who will feel compelled to buy it to have and handle. As of this writing, the median price for which it has been sold since 2020 (Discogs) is $65.61. It’s not cheap.
The best way to identify this disc is to make sure it is a silver Canadian disc that specifically reads “DISQUE AMERIC” followed by a set of numbers and letters in the matrix. Among them are 016R3<011>C246441, 7U8/C2–46441 or L6H1<001>C246441 preceded by “made by/fabriqué par DISQUE AMERIC CANADA.” However, this is not an exhaustive list of matrices containing the second mastering.
There is no way of determining which master you have by looking at the artwork. Some research online will tell you that you can rule out any CDs that have the Apple logo. However, this is incorrect, as I own one with the Apple logo on the back cover with the Disque Americ CD. You must look at the matrix on the disc itself.
Complications
To further confuse matters, some discs may contain the first mastering with similar markings to the Disque Americ CD. So, before buying this beast, your best bet is to listen to it with headphones. Better yet, listen to the 1987 CD and the Disque Americ CD side-by-side.
If you compare the 1987 CD and the Disque Americ CD side-by-side, you’ll hear a slightly longer tail on the fades of the Disque Ameriq version, as well as a light but consistent amount of tape hiss that is missing from the 1987. This is a good thing. This points to a faithful reproduction of the master tapes, a play-it-and-forget-it hands-off style of remastering.
The most noticeable differences are the following: a longer sustain at the end of “Eleanor Rigby,” a longer fade at the end of “Love You To,” an “extra” line at the end of “She Said She Said,” the beginning of “I Want to Tell You” is louder and there is an “extra” piano note at the end of “Tomorrow Never Knows.” More simply, you could listen for tape hiss during the silence between tracks to determine which pressing you have.
Fortunately, this is not the only instance in which Canada received a different digital Beatles master from the rest of the world. I will discuss the other titles and differences later in this series.
Dynamic range readings:
The higher the Dynamic Range (DR) reading, the more realistic the sound and the more faithful to the master tapes:
1987 (mastering 1 CD): DR 10
Early 1990s Canadian (variation 1 CD): DR 10
2009 (mastering 2 CD): DR 9
2009 (variation 2; 24/44 high-resolution files): DR 9
The only difference between mastering 2 and variation 2, other than the resolution, is a different amount of headroom. They both have the same amount of compression and EQ, except for “Love You To,” which has a DR of 9 on mastering 2 and a DR of 10 on variation 2.
The 1987 CD and Disque Americ CD have variable amounts of headroom, but no added compression. Mastering 2 and variation 2 have the same amount of headroom on every track except for “Taxman,” which only differs from the other tracks by a negligible -0.03 dB.
Mastering 2 (2009) and variation 2 (2009) have added compression and tweaked EQ, accounting for the decreased dynamic range on both compared to the 1987 CDs. Some audiophiles have argued that the 2009s do not have added compression and that the difference in dynamic range is due to a difference in EQ only. However, as an amateur audio engineer of 30+ years, I have found that a difference as large as 1 dB and a comparison of the waveforms demonstrate that it is a function of both added compression and tweaked EQ.
Conclusion and guide
If your value is get-rid-of-tape-hiss-at-any-cost, then you’ll likely prefer the 1987 CD, as the others have some amount of hiss, albeit negligible.
If you lean toward wanting to hear your old music sound new, e.g., a modern sound in which the originally intended dynamics are reduced and bass and drums are more prominent than they used to be, then you’ll want one of the 2009 releases.
If you want to hear the master tapes the way they were originally intended, without tweaks or second-guessing, you’ll prefer variation 1 (the Canadian Disque Ameriq version). I am firmly in the latter category, but your mileage may vary.
Happy hunting!
