British vs. Japanese remasterings of analog EMI recordings

[John Kim]

I recently bought Klemperer/NPO/EMI M9th HQCD from Japan. This is supposed to be a superior remastering in the High Quality CD format. However, when I did AB comparison with my British version of the same recording, I found that the Japanese disc sounds harsher, with noticeable amount of tape hiss and even distortion in loud passages. The sound image is more distant, smaller, and lacking some details that are more audible on the original EMI CDs.

Next, I pulled out my Klemperer/NPO/Toshiba EMI DLVDE & Barbirolli/BPO/Toshiba EMI M9th and found very similar traits. But they too are supposed to be the latest remastering based on their unique technology.Since I don't have British versions of these recordings I couldn't do AB comparisons, but my impression remains the same as for the M9th.

So, what's going on here?

Did any of you have the same impressions/issues about the Japanese Toshiba EMI remastering in general?

This is surprising because I've always thought Japanese do superior remastering of old recordings.

John,

[Damfino]

The problems could be related to decisions made by the people who mastered the recordings and not the technology used. A case in point: Frank Sinatra's Capitol recordings. I am a huge Sinatra fan, particularly of the Capitol albums. These were originally released on CD in the late 80's and early 90's and were mastered by a guy named Larry Walsh. In the late 90's, early 00's, the albums were remastered by Bob Norberg using 20-bit and/or 24-bit technology. if you follow the Sinatra family forum or the forum of audio engineer Steve Hoffman, you will find that the Norberg remasters are universally derided and that Sinatra collectors prefer the Walsh masterings or the British masterings (or the original LPs).

Norberg apparently tried to reduce the tape hiss that afflicted the old recordings (they date from 1954-1962); so he applied some severe high-end filtering. He then went back and tried to jack up the highs that were left in the recordings. The result is a strange, hollow sound that has been described as "sucking the air out of the room".

It is similar to some poorly remastered DVDs and Blu-rays. Frequently, a film will be severely filtered to remove "excess grain". This filtering smooths out the grain, but also obscures detail; so the engineers will then do a pass with a "sharpening filter" in an attempt to bring out more detail. The result is a film in which the actors have waxy complexions and there is a halo around many objects due to the artificial sharpening.

Sometimes the latest technology can be abused by overzealous engineers who try to "fix" something that is not broken.

[John Kim]

Damfino,

Thanks for the info.

It seems that the Japanese audio engineers may have tried to follow the same rout as 'not interfering with the original tapes'. Still, the comparison is so poor that I cannot but think they used a second dup instead of the master tape. There is simply too much tape hiss, distortion, and occasional saturation, non of which is present in the British remastering. Not that the latter sounds tweaked. It doesn't and sounds completely natural.

I am listening to the Japanese Klemperer DLVDE on EMI and notice that it too has the same issues.

John,