Tokyo Story (1953)

Heavy hiss reduction on the Criterion blu-ray, a moderate amount on the old Criterion DVD, the BFI blu-ray, and the Shochiku blu-ray, and none on the Italian Raro DVD.

The old Criterion DVD and the BFI blu-ray sound exactly the same; they use the same audio track, compression aside. The Shochiku blu-ray has some wonky dynamics (see waveform), but otherwise sounds pretty similar. All seem to come from the same analogue source(s), so the 'restored' tracks don't offer any new detail. ...On the contrary, they offer much less.

The Criterion blu-ray does not use the 'restored' track Shochiku completed; instead, Criterion presumably returned to their DVD track's master and applied hiss reduction more aggressively. It has less noise than the Shochiku blu-ray but marginally better EQ. 

The Raro DVD was surely sourced from the SD master Shochiku sent to distributors around the world in 2003, so I'd wager the old Shochiku DVD, the Australian Madman DVD, and the UK Tartan DVD sound the same. It has some light (inaudible) dynamic compression and it has plenty of pops and crackle, but it's so much more detailed that I'd take it over the scrubbed-to-death 'restored' tracks any day.