Why are so many albums poorly remastered onto cd


It seems like every time I read a review of a remastered album onto CD everybody just bags on the quality and from some of my experiences, rightfully so.The quality of music is going away so quickly, why is it so hard to remaster a album?
pinto72
there are so many horror stories of different 'master tapes' that are compressed etc while the real masters remain untouched the ones that were toyed with are what we often listen to
what about the obvious:

the master tape ages and when it is used to create a cd, the result is less than pleasant. this would be true for poorly maintained or old master tapes, maybe acetate-based.
Music is compressed for a reason. Grand piano, for instance, has dynamics close to 100dB impossible to reproduce on typical low cost system or boombox (not to mention whole symphony orchestra). CD mastering is targeted for average buyer. Audiophiles, being small group, have no buying power. In addition old analog tapes were converted long time ago to digital with jittery clocks. It is type of jitter that cannot be removed or suppressed unless it is digitized again (if analog master still exists).
07-09-12: Mrtennis
what about the obvious:

the master tape ages and when it is used to create a cd, the result is less than pleasant. this would be true for poorly maintained or old master tapes, maybe acetate-based.

Have you heard the remastered 45 RPM vinyl of Louis Armstrong, "Under The Stars," recorded in 1957?

There are more than a few new recordings that pale in the face of this early technology. "Satchmo Plays King Oliver," is stunning as well and equally old.

Your point is valid, some tapes have deteriorated but much was either bad to begin with or made worse by poor remastering.
So many of these remasters are meant to grab someone's attention -- on an iPod, in a car, on a boom box, over the stereo system in a barroom -- not to be appreciated by an audiophile sitting down in a quiet listening room. Just as our daily political "discourse" has been reduced to shouting masquerading as debate, so much music is seeking to do exactly the same thing: getting someone to pay attention, if only for a split second.
"Notice me!" shouts the guy on Fox News or MS-NBC. "Buy my tune" shouts the singer on the latest remaster.
Remember when the word "digital" was used as a positive marketing term? Audiophiles soon enough learned the truth. Perhaps the same kind of thing is happening with remastered recordings.
-- Howard