New Mercury Living Presence Mastering

This was discussed extensively on another board at the time of release. The consensus IIRC is that they are indistinguishable from the original CD releases supervised by Thomas’ mother. As such it was considered a disappointment. However, there may be some new material not released on CD originally

The 'restoration" spoken of is likely the restoration of the original analog tapes.  Mercury, unlike most other companies, did not prepare a master tape for the disk cutting and later for the CD transformation (though the Golden Imports did).  They always used the original session tapes.  These tapes were handled, and perhaps mishandled repeatedly and were said to need a great deal of care to make them usable for yet another series.  Apparently they needed a good bit or cleaning off of old glue and re-taping.

Notwithstanding, I think I have a high resolution system and I think the sound of these old Mercuries is fine, though some are much better than others. That was also true on the original CDs, and on the LPs.

In any event they are all up on Qobuz so you can make up your own mind.

@melm

I’ve bought both sets and compared several of the remasterings to the Wilma Cozart supervised masterings and , at least on my set, there is a notable difference in detail and soundstaging. The incredible depth of field is just not present on the new set.
That, along with the closeup detail, was what set Mercury apart from the herd. The Thomas Fine set sounds fine in and of itself, but not much different from other label’s releases from the period, and indeed of many current high quality releases.
But it is not the “Mercury sound” that is so unique.
I understand that through the years it has been criticized for being bright and edgy, but with new, more sophisticated equipment, that very quality was transformed into a higher resolution presentation.
The Golden Imports CD releases got it right. Comparing them to the original LP’s, there is little loss of quality.
I’d be very interested on what other board you saw a discussion of this topic.

Reissues are for the period album that has become unobtanium.

I happily listen thru a period press with a tick/stitch than thru a noise free,sanitized essentially CD pressed to an LP.

May as well listen to the CD/file. 

Reissue quality is a hit or miss just as much as bin diving for "the one." If one is hoping to hear one "faithful" to the original, it's a crap shoot.

I am fortunate to live with a neighborhood store with Classical gems from the "Golden Age" coming in almost weekly for cheap, because there is little demand for them.

@rvpiano 

You might want to look here and here for openers

For an audiophile board discussing classical music, you're in the wrong place.

@melm 

Thank you so much for your referrals.