Are re-mastered cd's worth replacing regular cd's?

More often than not remaster just means loudness and squashed dynamics. I've been keen on seeking out early pressings recently. Found a sweet sounding Genesis Wind and Wuthering made by Sanyo Japan for US distro. The early US Chrysalis Thick as a Brick is another great sounding disc. Iron Maiden remasters are certainly worthless. I picked up the '95 Castle self-titled recently and it sounds great. The original EPIC CDs of No Prayer and Fear of the Dark also best the remasters.
 
Don't know if I've already responded on this thread or not but my experience with reissue CD's is 80 to 90% - wish I hadn't of done that. Mr White termed it well. I do think many people are not sensitive to the added "clipping" that modern mixing folks include in their mastering, but I surely am. Like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.

Reissue vinyl, better results, maybe 50/50 proposition. I really do my homework now before pulling the trigger because of this.
 
I default to early CBS/Sony and Polygram 1st pressings where I can. Newer stuff is a crapshoot with re-masterings often simply re-eqs of the CD master to make it 'hotter'.
There's been way too many 'George Lucas' style remasterings where the original was way better and should have been left alone...

But it does vary- original multitracks can often be improved in the hands of the right engineers. I'd like to hear the rehamstered Aqualung as the old one is truly hideous.

(rehamstered was a typo, but I like it. :) Henceforth, all remasterings should be known as rehamsterings)
 
Steven Wilson re-MIXED Aqualung. It's not just an EQ of a previous master. Which is a good thing as he was able to source multiple tapes and really bring things out that weren't there before. For example, during "My God," the part with the chants used to have a severe EQ shift. It's now crystal clear and flows much, much better with the music preceding it. I'm not opposed to remixes if they come out like this.
 
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