I haven't heard any of the latest re-issues. Is the SQ crappy? I thought the whole point was to undo the sonic wrongs done by previous releases... 
D.D.
I've got:
Absolutely Free (includes the single)
Hot Rats (put the original edits back in)
Chunga's Revenge
Bongo Fury
Zoot Allures
Sleep Dirt (took out the vocals)
Sheik Yerbouti
Tinseltown Rebellion
The Perfect Stranger
YCDTOSA 1
I have otherwise been _very_ happy. All but the last two on the list are analog masters. The problem with Stage 1 appears to be with the phase: It sounds weak and blown out, with a garbage EQ curve. To make sure it wasn't just me, I had a musician friend of mine put his ears on it (not telling him that I thought anything was wrong), and we A/B'd against the original Ryko CD. The difference was glaringly obvious. Wow, never thought I would say something nice about the Zappa releases on Ryko.
However, when I run a track through Audacity, and "invert the samples" (their language), all the problems go away. At that point, the new release is indeed sonically superior to the original.
That said, I'm not sure I like it, for an untypical reason: They did such a good job with the noise floor, it sounds creepy going from one track to another, when the performances are a decade apart.
