@voodoolounge
Fair enough. I'm not sure why the intentions of the person who happened to engineer the first master should be given priority over other, qualified mastering engineers' ideas, though. In general, the choice of the original mastering engineer was based largely on who happened to be available when your record was ready for mastering, and within the budget.
I don't think it was an artistic choice, or driven by who would make this or that particular record sound the best. I imagine there were specialists within genres of music -- this guy knows how to master orchestral recordings, that guy knows how to master pop band recordings -- but I doubt there was much to the choice beyond that.
And, as far as I know, the original masterings aren't being lost or thrown away. They're still around. If enough people like the original better than the remastering of a given record, somebody will put it into print sooner or later.
