J.A.W.

Correct, that's the law in the EU, though the percentage varies from country to country, depending on their VAT rate. Your assumption is not correct. Tax and sometimes duty are imposed in accordance with EU law, not arbitrarily, and customs can't and won't ignore any claims and appeals.

This 24-bit mastered TOCJ-6xxx series from 2004/5 is known for its loudness and boosted highs/lows, which is not to everyone's taste. I had quite a few of these CDs and on first hearing I liked them, but after repeated listening I found the sound very fatiguing and unpleasant and sold them all. I have the "Blue Note Works" version of Walkin' and Talkin' from 1993 (TOCJ-4010).

Same here. I wonder which sources were used for these CDs. i can almost guarantee you that they're japanese safeties that are used as sources. they're just being engineered and reengineered to the ends of the earth.... however, sometimes to great effect. From what erwbol posted in this thread I understand that the masterings of the successive Japanese series vary wildly. I have bought and rebought impulse! CDs over the years trying to find discs with (to my ears) consistently good sound. I got the Erick Labson-mastered U.S. 20-bit digipaks with their boosted highs/lows, the Japanese 20-bit K2s which sounded as if compression was added, the later Japanese 24-bit UCCI series which also sounded heavily processed to me, some GRP CDs from the early 1990s that sounded very dull, and finally went back to the U.S. and Japanese issues from 1987 and the Japanese MVCI series from 1991; those sound OK to me and they have the bonus tracks the Labson discs also have and some of the Japanese series seem to be missing, but they could still do with a sonic upgrade - without all the processing, that is.

http://pitchfork.com/news/53822-third-man-records-targeted-in-copyright-dispute-over-paramount-records-box-set/

+ http://www.offbeat.com/2014/02/01/revenant-jack-white-third-man-records-copyright-infringement/

Never heard the Müllejans/Bezuidenhout violin sonatas; could be interesting, even though I generally don't like the sound of fortepianos. What I've heard of Bezuidenhout's Mozart keyboard sonatas (and concerti, for that matter) sounded too thin to my liking - again, the fortepiano... I agree with you about Staier, he seems to be an acquired taste.

Set my objections to yet another "upgrade" aside and finally took the plunge and ordered Wayne Shorter's Speak No Evil, to compare it to my BN Works copy and see, or rather hear, if it really is an upgrade to my ears.

Fortunately, not all U.S. sellers raised their international shipping rates. For instance, ImportCDs' overseas rate is still $6.99 for 1 CD.

Not really. The stereo master is mixed from the session tapes. Otherwise nothing could be 're-mastered' because the master would be the session tapes which obviously can't be redone. I'm not an expert, but I was told that mastering engineers like Kevin Gray, Steve Hoffman, Vic Anesini and Mark Wilder (to name a few) are using the original session tapes as sources for their masterings where they can. The term "remaster" in this case means that they went back to the source to create a new mastering; the term is used to distinguish the new mastering from earlier masterings.

I think it's pretty simple. "Original master tape" refers to the tape that was used to record the music on. Successive duplicates - taken from the original master as well as later ones taken from the duplicates - are bound to have an increasing number of problems such as tape hiss upon tape hiss (I'm talking about the pre-digital era), drop-outs and what have you.

The link won't work for Jim since you have to be a member for at least 30 days and have posted at least 50 times there to be able to access their Classifieds forum.

Same here. I wonder which sources were used for these CDs.

Thanks for your research, Erwin. Would it be possible for you to summarize and post a list of SHM CDs whose masterings are improvements over previous masterings in your opinion? Thanks.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-26009575#" http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/03/movies/philip-seymour-hoffman-actor-dies-at-46.html?emc=edit_na_20140202&_r=0

I totally agree with Mike. As a matter of fact, everything I've heard Gould do I found horrible, I avoid his performances like the plague. I have 2 versions of the complete Mozart piano sonatas, one by Ronald Brautigam, the other by Maria João Pires (her later DG cycle), but, as I said earlier, these works are not really my cup of tea.

Also available from third-party sellers on U.S. Amazon: Agharta http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=B000024QNR Pangaea http://www.amazon.com/Pangaea-Miles-Davs/dp/B000024QMR/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391361349&sr=8-1&keywords=B000024QMR

Released in Japan on September 21, 1996 and still available from third-party sellers: Sony SRCS 9128~29 Agharta http://www.amazon.co.jp/アガルタ-マイルス・デイヴィス/dp/B000024QNR/ref=sr_1_12?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1391361049&sr=1-12&keywords=miles+davis+agharta Sony SRCS 9130~31 Pangaea http://www.amazon.co.jp/パンゲア-マイルス・デイヴィス/dp/B000024QMR/ref=sr_1_13?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1391360770&sr=1-13&keywords=miles+davis+pangaea Maybe you know someone in Japan who can help you with these.

I'd say that given the fact that most of the music discussed here tends to be several decades old, it only stands to reason that conversation about them would eventually dry up. How much can one say about Kind Of Blue, for example? So I have to disagree with my friend J.A.W., I didn't see this as a negative comment. Just a reasonable observation. OK, but as I said this thread is about sonic preferences, not about whether a discussion like that is worthwhile or not; that's not the point here and would actually be off-topic.

I pre-ordered the Richter on Amazon Germany when their price was about 58 euros and it's on its way to me for that price. I guess I was lucky.

The discussion in the SHM Blue Notes thread about their sonic qualities made me post this thread, which is merely meant as a question about the sonic preferences of people here before the SHM discs appeared, not about the merits (or lack thereof) of that discussion itself. If you think it's ridiculous and/or if you're not interested - and some people who posted here are clearly not - why not ignore this thread instead of posting negative comments?

A little off-topic here, but do the inserts/booklets say who mastered these SHM discs? Couldn't find it in the other thread. Erwbol is right, Universal Japan are often using older masterings for their impulse! CDs, which they keep reissuing over and over again.

As far as I know all SHM Blue Notes have been remastered. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. Not anymore, sold most of them a long time ago.

Although Mahler is one of my favourite composers (really), I'm not too fond of his song cycles. That said, I like Klemperer's version of Das Lied von der Erde with Christa Ludwig and Fritz Wunderlich best.

Yep. I also have that one; great set.

I've always found RVG's to be a mixed bag. On one end you have excellent stuff like Rollins' Vanguard date and Dolphy's OTL, on the other you have Hill's Point Of Departure which is incredibly thin and brittle, IMO. That said, since I never had the pleasure of hearing the original analog LP's I would have to concur that the RVG's are the best of the bunch. The McMasters stuff was less than impressive. I had many original Blue Note LPs and later a lot of Japanese King LPs, which generally sounded great. Unlike most people here (it seems) I didn't like the RVGs that I had at all (and I had almost all of them at one point, used to buy this stuff in bulk - I know, not the wisest thing to do when you don't know if you'll like it or not) and prefer the XRCDs, the CD-layers of the SACDs, early McMasters (to my ears many of them sound excellent), BN Works (too much high-end roll-off) and early Connoisseurs, in that order.