Hi,
funny, I just bought the NOTW 2001 japanese remaster today, and it beats the "old" master. The sound is way crisper, very fresh, indeed an improvement. The record has a new flair IMO. I don't want to say too much, just test it. By the way, NOTW is my first 2001 remaster, so I can't help you with the other albums....
I agree and found them to be very clear and somewhat brighter than the EMI masters. however, there is still a great deal of tape hiss on there - now, whether that *needs* to be removed is a different kettle of fish, as I believe some tape hiss adds a bit of ambience and helps the music retain some of it's age as opposed to sounding as though it had been recorded yesterday.
"Each to their own sewerage"
They sound crisper as they have put a LOT of compression on the treble on the earlier albums, therefore hightening any tape hiss at the same time. I believe the only problem with the first CD issues & the 1994 remasters is that they weren't mastered loud enough. If you play around with the 94 remastered versions with any mastering software you can often get better results than the newer Japanese remasters. The newest remasters sound like some of the low end has been removed aswell.