Don't know if we talk about the same thing, but assuming that you mean old classical recordings, I'm on the contrary impressed by the work of some remastering engineers, especially at Decca.
A friend of mine (twice as old as I am) still has an impressive vinyl collection going back to the fifties, and I had the occasion to directly compare some of the recordings with the remastered ones on CD. In almost all cases, I preferred the remastered version, sometimes the quality was just stunning.
True, in the 80's some record companies (a Dutch one especially) went way too far - together with the scratches, they also took off the music. In the meantime, they learned from that, and if the interpretation is worth it, you may forget all those scratches, as you would do with the coughs of the audience - and they haven't found the remedy yet ...
Cheese
