I have a mid-70's mint vinyl Dutch Raw Power from the embassy reels and must say, it still remains the best sounding version I've heard, of course this is for folks who a) still have a turntable and b) have decent audio gear to hear it on. Still, it's not alll that much different from the US vinyl and I think some folks are going to be disappointed when it finally surfaces as it surely will since they'll sell us hardcore fans the same stuff over as many times as possible.
I still have a question as to how the drums and bass ended up being mixed so low and how they come they've never been corrected. Did the bass and drum sounds really make it to tape? Are they on a track or tracks with rhythm guitar parts that don't match up to the overdubbed leads? One of my theories is that they recorded the basic bass/drums and guitar and decided to not use the guitar part, then speeded up the tape so the original bass and drums which were on the same tracks, or had leakeage from the guitars on them had to be turned down because they were out of sync. Is that possible? I'm not much a recording/tech head buyt someone like Nitebob might know the answers. It seems so easy, just make the bass and drums loud enough to hear, as the original mix has great guitar and vocals were just fine.