Since this thread has been bumped and I said I'd write something about Schneider Quartet in the Haydn composer thread- I've listened to all but four discs in this box, these pretty much hit the spot perfectly with what my intent was when I started this thread. All of this should be read with the caveat that I love early-mid period Budapest Quartet.
These have that "reverence" in the slow movements, and generally played with more vibrato. In my opinion they could strike a more even balance between the earthyness, reverence, humor, wit and its more present in Festetics and Auryn's cycles and why these will still be my go to big cycles for ease of listening in large amounts. Still there is very minimal stodginess in Schneider which was one of my complaints when sampling Tatrai.
Schneider are more for isolated listening, I can't see myself listening to discs on end (note this is also my bias towards more modern sensibilities/my taste), but damn is this good music making. That combination of their integrated style and the mono sound (of course I'd have preferred this to be stereo) creates an agreeable, chamber quality when hearing them.
Most of this box is up on a Schneider Quartet Youtube channel and I sampled a good amount of it there before buying.
Music & Arts transfers don't sound like they have done anything to impact the timbre and fidelity of the instruments but there is less tape hiss than what I would expect for 1950s tape, to my ears it sounds like this was reduced only through EQ and not something like No Noise as I hear no artifacts that hideous noise reduction system leaves behind. The tape hiss is still present at active listening levels so I might be wrong, this might just be from quieter tape formulation, Decca for instance were using quite expensive tape in the 50s. Some pieces sound like they came from LPs and not tape.
