Remasters - are they better? What exactly is it?

Awesome info from everyone.  For those whom I disagree'd with, I'm mainly just playing devil's advocate.

Like I wish so badly that Elvis's old stuff was a little more "oomphy".. NOT electronica hip hop fakery, but just more "crank up-ability" (im struggling for words here).

Here's an example..  Elton John "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me"....

Original recording: ehhh boring, not going to make me stand up and clap. But his newer live versions at Madison Square Garden, ohhhh yeah... It gets my adrenaline pumping.

Here's a better example yall are going to kill me for.

"The Weight" by The Band sounds bland and uninvolving compared to Marty Stuarts newer version which I actually like alot better.  

On some albums, I have 6+ different versions. DSOTM comes to mind, where I have the Black Triangle CD, the Sony Mastersound. the regular CD, MoFi vinyl digitized 24/96, the 1992 remaster, the 2011 remaster, the UHQR 180 gr vinyl digitized . . . it’s nuts. Same with WYWH, Brain Salad Surgery and Close To The Edge. I keep telling myself that I am going to listen to them once and for all, determine which sound best and get rid of the other ones, but I never do <sigh>. (BTW, did you know that when MoFi originally got the analog master tape of DSOTM to do the MoFi pressing, they BROKE THE TAPE! Yes, true story). On a slightly different note, on the Hoffman Forums, someone posted a sample of each of the several DSOTM recordings and you had to download them and rank them in order. Then the OP posted what recording each number corresponded to. With DSOTM, I preferred the Sony Mastersound over all of them. It is an interesting test, because you can’t be influenced by your expectations regarding which one wis going to sound better. Definitely worth taking the challenge.

dtximages--you may be right.  If I were you I would install more locks on my doors and possibly hire round-the-clock security

 The first series of Classic Records RCA reissues cut directly from the master tape with very little EQ or change.  Listeners were unhappy because they did not hear "better" versions of what they were intimately familiar with !  What they received was actually closer to the master tape, but we deemed inferior !   Classic incorporated some of the original EQ in subsequent reissues.

What idTENt decided to leave off mastering EQ?

Back in the day when the distribution media was vinyl, mix engineers backed up from the disc knowing it would add a bit of coloration.

It was sometimes a hassle with new acts because they did not understand that what they heard in the control room or a from a cassette in their car was not the 'finished' product. We called it "Fixing it in the stores"