"Because" from Abbey Road was the first song to finish downloading from the full torrent, so I compared it to my Dr. Ebbetts "Blue Box" disc. (I initially thought I was comparing it to the Toshiba "Black Triangle" CD, which is superior to the Ebbetts disc, but I apparently don't have that on my computer - it's only on a burned CD. I'll have to compare those later.)

So how does the 2009 remaster stack up (remember, I'm only comparing one song at this point)?

Holy fucking Christ is it amazing. Everything is much clearer - the tape hiss that's plagued every version of Abbey Road I've ever heard, from vinyl to CD, is gone, but I can't find any indication that the removal of the hiss got rid of anything else. The bass has more oomph than the Ebbetts disc, and the highs aren't as harsh and grating. In fact, pretty much every aspect of it is better.

My only complaint is that it's clear that some volume compression has been performed. Not much - it doesn't clip nearly as badly as some other recent remasters - but there is some dynamic range lost. It's my understanding that the stereo versions all had some volume compression performed, but the mono versions had none - since those will be what I listen to, I'm fine with that. I just wish they would have released a version of the Abbey Road remaster that didn't have the compression. But it's not a deal-breaker by any means.

Based on what I've heard so far (the one song, again), these remasters may just be everything we've been waiting all these years for. I'm very pleasantly surprised.