Beethoven Symphonies - best perf + sonics on CD

Lowrider, Goofyfoot, and all interested in the remastered 63 von Karajan set.
It arrived today, and I started off with the 7th and 8th, both of which I owned and loved on vinyl, then went to the 1st and 2nd. In terms of the sound, it is well, a bit of a mixed bag. You get the nice ambience of the Jesus Christus Kirche, and the upper strings are fairly sweet. The lower strings tend to be a bit muddy at times, and the tympani lacks the sharp attack and proper decay for which one might hope. You will not be fooled into thinking this is a 2013 Linn release.
BUT---its HvK in his prime. The 7th and 8th are even better than I had remembered. His approach on the 1st is a little to much Haydn and too little LvB for my taste, but still worthwhile. I remember Lennie Bernstein's remark "This is no minueto!" and I think he was dead right.
Back in the day I owned the LvB 3rd, 5th, 6 th, 7th, 8th and 9th from the 63 HvK cycle. This may be enough of a teaser to get me to try one of the Japanese remasters.

Back to Beethoven - I am about halfway through watching those DVDs I mentioned of Claudio Abbado conducting the Berlin Phil in Rome in 2001. Unbelievable performances - if you have never heard them, you owe it to yourself to do so. Beethoven as it should be played.

Goofyfoot, I would probably be most likely to spring the money for the 7th, although I had a deep love for HVKs 3rd as well. I would take them one at a time, depending on how they sound.
The best I can describe the DG remasters is like when you first began to think about getting a replacement stylus. There is substantial grunge in the sound. There is definitely room for improvement. The sound quality was quite uniform in the symphonies I heard last night.

Brownsfan, what comes to mind are the Rudy Van Gelder recordings of the late 1950's and early 1960's. I bought a few Analogue Production remasters thinking that I would be front and center at a live event, no way. We've gotten spoiled over the years, especially us classical music fans given the level of recording quality that is out there today. I know exactly what you mean by the sonic comparison to a cartridge upgrade. There is apparently surface noise in the tapes and that the bottom end is washed out. I'm guessing that it may have a somewhat steely sound. These engineers were probably dealing with a lot of reverberation.
Learsfool, I run hot and cold with Mr. Abbado. His Brahms violin concerto with Gil Shaham and the Berlin is one of the best. However, I'd favor Pierre Boulez as a conductor as well as some other not so obvious choices.