CD mastering a lost art?

Nicely said Mezmo. Too bad.

IMHO, most of the remastered CDs I have bought (Bowie, EJ, Floyd) sound better than the original CD I purchased 10-20 years ago, although usually the difference is subtle. But Jimmy Page's Zepplin re-masters suck. The engineer doing the mixing and his priorities are a huge factor here.
There is a disturbing trend in recording/producing these days that compresses the dynamic range and just makes the music sound screechy. Arctic Monkeys is fun music, but it sounds like hell on my system. The indie rock genre is the worst purveyor of these ill-sounding CDs; its almost like a lack of quality sound is becoming a way to protest against the establishment.
Recent CDs I've bought that have good-to-great sound quality: Maximum Balloons, LCD soundsystem, James Blake.

Another trend seems to be multiple remasters and remixes of alread popular material in order to broaden the appeal.

A lot easier than coming up with something totally new to get peoples interest.

I think its a good thing though in that it adds more variety and avenues that you can go down when you find something you like. Very practical!

Some of my early cds sound better then some of the sacds I have of the same recording. There are some talented people mastering some great stuff these days just as they were 25+ years ago. There are also some hacks that shouldn't touch a recording at all.
Find a great sounding recording and look behind who did the mastering. You will be surprised how often only a few names come up.

Regards,

True that in most professions, especially those involving application of technology, there are usually only a select few that truly excel.