Stereo separation differences on various releases?

[Spaniard in da Works]

One thing that I noticed is that even in needledrops the US albums seem to sound louder than the UK ones. Is that an artifact of the rips I have or did Capitol really máster their albums hotter than EMI?

[Lord Reith]

The Americans probably used more limiting which makes the overall level higher. In the US they had commercial radio so the loudness wars were already in progress I guess. In Britain, it didn't matter so much about that.

[Kando]

None of my early MR or DESS US Capitol series seem to have elevated sound levels, especially compared to the US Capitol Albums, vol. 1-3.

[Spaniard in da Works]

None of my early MR or DESS US Capitol series seem to have elevated sound levels, especially compared to the US Capitol Albums, vol. 1-3.

I downloaded the MR rips Cliftdean74 posted, and when listening back to back to a track from Please Please Me to its equivalent in The Early Beatles or Meet The Beatles, the American one seems a bit louder, I think.
The UK version I downloaded was the Blue Box one, not the MSFL one.

[Kando]

None of my early MR or DESS US Capitol series seem to have elevated sound levels, especially compared to the US Capitol Albums, vol. 1-3.

I downloaded the MR rips Cliftdean74 posted, and when listening back to back to a track from Please Please Me to its equivalent in The Early Beatles or Meet The Beatles, the American one seems a bit louder, I think.
The UK version I downloaded was the Blue Box one, not the MSFL one.

Interesting, I have not had a chance to listen to my Cliftdean74 MR sets yet, so I cannot speak to those. Mine are very early MR clones from SilverDisc. They sound excellent and have volume that seems pretty much the same as any original DESS disc I have, none of which ever came across as louder than normal, or more so than any other early bootlegs I got. I've got all the various versions, all sound the same to me.

[Spaniard in da Works]

Interesting, I have not had a chance to listen to my Cliftdean74 MR sets yet, so I cannot speak to those. Mine are very early MR clones from SilverDisc. They sound excellent and have volume that seems pretty much the same as any original DESS disc I have, none of which ever came across as louder than normal, or more so than any other early bootlegs I got. I've got all the various versions, all sound the same to me.

It's very possible that it only seems subjectively louder due to all the Dexterization, of course.

[Lord Reith]

Are we talking about needle drops or playing actual lps here? Because the needle drops may be mastered at different levels. You'd need to actually play the lps to know whether any were mastered louder.

[Spaniard in da Works]

Are we talking about needle drops or playing actual lps here? Because the needle drops may be mastered at different levels. You'd need to actually play the lps to know whether any were mastered louder.

Needle drops, but since the versions I'm comparing are both from the MR series I'd imagine they should be comparable.

What there's no denying is that the US mixes are the ones featured in the loudest Beatles release I ever heard; The Capitol Albums Box Sets are brickwalled monstrosities due to the combination of all the Capitol reverb and loudness war era mastering, and it does not help that at the time they were the only official way of listening to the 1963-64 stereo mixes. But for listening on a Discman or MP3 player with earbuds they did their job.

[Kando]

It's very possible that it only seems subjectively louder due to all the Dexterization, of course.

I can imagine that it could sound like that in some cases as I certainly have had various sonic issues with those recordings depending upon my system and listening environment. What I have found, and I have spent years going over this issue, is that the harmonics of various listening environments seemingly coincide with the particular harmonics of the reverb/echo that was added by Capitol. It is strange phenomena indeed. Playing these recordings in soft-top cars, of which I have had a few, they seem to exhibit far less issues in regards to the bothersome effect, and the reverb/echo in this situation does not come across as being over bearing. This is probably due to the lack of harmful reflections within the soft top car, with top up or down. However, in various less than ideal rooms, with various playback systems, I have occasionally heard it in very annoying ways, as the system and/or room seemed to exaggerate the reverb/echo. However, on my best system, in a pretty decent room, I found the reverb/echo actually more subtle sounding than I imagined I would. It quite surprised me. I found it no more noticeable than the many hundreds of recordings made throughout that era using the same, or similar, techniques. I also listened to the Capitol Vol. 1-3 versions, on that same system, and they also sounded better as well. The reverb/echo was not annoying, and the volume issue was abated a bit, but not entirely. I still have large grievances with that, however, as on my auto system the volume part is still irritating, lol.

So in the end I can see why many people can have issues with what Capitol did regarding the addition of reverb/echo. And why in some cases it actually comes across as more annoying than on other similar recordings of the era. It is, I think, an unfortunate problem that may actually arise from where the Beatles' harmonies often tend to fall within the sonic spectrum, and where the local harmonics of both some playback systems and listening environments happen to also lie, and are influenced by them in a rather unflattering manner. I know to many this may sound like a long winded run around in order to protect those recordings. It is, however, simply the only way I can actually comprehend what I have heard with this particular series over the years in a lot of varying playback systems and greatly varying environments. Wish I had a better explanation for the issue, but I do not, lol. Sorry for the long winded response.