OP, It all starts with THE original master tape as the source. Did the big music companies really use THE originals to press 100k copies? No. They made safety copies.
Better Records vs MoFi
I’ve read about Better Records on the site. They listen to endless copies of records & separate out the amazing sounding pressings. I can understand because of many variables, some sound better than others. But, can a great sounding regular pressing sound better than a half speed master? Doesn’t a HSM have more music data on it?
I don’t want to go down a rabbit hole. If the BR premise holds up then there are certainly better pressings of Dark Side of the Moon etc. I’m not concerned with that. I’m also not interested in cost or “X sucks, I’d never buy one.”