As for the new masters, the MP3s (really AACs) that will eventually be on iTunes will sound a hell of a lot better than most of the current CDs. With the exception of the “Yellow Submarine Songtrack,” “1″ and “Love,” all of the Beatles CDs were mastered for CD in 1987 and 1988.

Remastering has come a long way since then. I expect the new versions to sound stunningly clearer. They’ll be reissued on new CDs which I will gladly buy. If we’re lucky, they’ll be reissued on a SACD or DVD-Audio for those of us with good ears. And on iTunes, the AAC files will be at 256 kbps, which is a level of compression that is damned close to indistinguishable from the original. I imagine Amazon will have 256 kbps MP3 files as well.