Red Desert (1964)

1999 Image Entertainment DVD: No noise reduction whatsoever and no signs that higher generation elements were used. Two loud 12 and 15 kHz tones are present, which I've attenuated for the clip below.

2006 Madman Entertainment DVD: Quite a lot of noise reduction relative to the Image DVD, but no more than your typical modern mastering - probably less, if anything, so I'm mystified as to why this release was singled out years ago for having poor audio quality.

2008 BFI DVD: Significantly more noise reduction than the Madman DVD, accompanied by a treble boost. The blu-ray released by BFI in the same year is surely identical.

2010 Criterion Blu-ray: This mastering preserves high frequencies better than the Madman track in some scenes, but for the most part it sounds a bit more muffled.

2022 Carlotta Films Blu-ray: The 2017 restoration has a new audio mastering that most resembles the BFI track. It sounds pretty terrible to me.

Red Desert (1964)

The mono on the BFI blu-ray is extremely no-noised, sounding very dead overall. The Criterion blu-ray's audio has its upper frequencies mostly intact, but has some of its lower ones filtered out, attenuating some ambient sound effects slightly. I prefer the Criterion by a significant margin, but both are disappointing.