Why do I keep torturing myself with remasters?

Oleschool,
I too have had terrible luck with remasters, SHM-SACDs, and almost everything MoFi.  They are all soft, EQ'd, compressed, based up, etc. very disappointed in the difficulty of finding "the right" as in best, version of an album.  Argh!  At least it's Friday.  :-)

Check some Fremer articles on Analog Planet that address this issue. He calls out labels that only do all-analog remaster/represses and some of the charlatans. 
http://www.analogplanet.com/content/reissue-labels-avoid-and-some-best-proceed-caution#gHK6bJ684z2Bo...

The best ones I'm getting these days are the 200g ones from Analogue Productions. All my Speakers Corner LPs are great too, including solo cello, large scale orchestra, Count Basie, Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane, and my ORGs are great too. 

Maybe I'm lucky or the higher number of reissues of pop and rock results in a larger number of bad ones.

I find the best sounding LP's are from the 50's/60's....RCA, DG, Capital, Mercury, etc.  

I whole heartedly agree with the above comments. I had to learn this myself in 2000 when I went back to analog in a big way - never junked my vinyl - just slowed down buying it.

All those low priced old pressings were stocking the shelves in record stores and I went for the "better" remaster.

Sorry to hear on your fire, I also have an extensive Japanese and original UK pressing vinyl collection from the late seventies so Your lost must have been huge

i buy some great reissues on jazz and very few in the pop/rock medium. They sound compressed, closed in, cymbal decay unnatural. Many have digital "enhancements". Who are these engineers putting out this crap.

you can slowly accumulate this via online - - still some giving away "batches for a few bucks" offers or go quality over quantity.  a good recording machine goes a long way

perhaps the occasional weekend trip up to Portland or down to Frisco will help fill the coffers.

there are some good remasters and you will hear about them here on SH. Be wary though, plenty of cheerleader people toting a crap sandwich release

I’ve been positively impressed by every recent MoFi reissue relative to good original pressings (Grateful Dead, Dylan, Miles Davis). Also Analog Productions(The Doors, Miles Davis mono box), and Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, and Pink Floyd archive series. The 45RPM ones can be spectacular. Other reissues have been hit or miss. SQ can be fine but is often hobbled by pressing defects(I like the Faces/Small Faces box except for one horrible white pock like acne on my favorite Ronnie Lane song.) With respect to comments above, is there a difference of opinion regarding reissues vs. remasters?