this was the review that concerned me:
Unlistenable, April 3, 2003
Reviewer: Blues Bro "bluesbro" (Lakewood, Colorado USA) - See all my reviews
What a shame RCA! Years waiting for this reissue and they completely ruined it. The 'remaster' is terrible, I can say is unlistenable for disk 1 at least. Dont think your copy is defective, they all sound the same. You wont be able to turn up the volume, if you will, you wont listen to the Duke's music but you'll isten your speaker breaking apart in front of you. Nothing in the liner notes to explain why these CD sound like this: did they use 78's, second copies? You'll never know, that is not your business. Can someone somewhere put a stop to these greedy companies like RCA, who try to cash 'repacking' a product without even bothering to listen to how bad these CDs sound? Save your money, look for an imported version of these recordings and considser twice before buying CDs from RCA.