recording engineers have, for the past 8 or so years, been mastering most new albums at a very high level, and doing so to re-issues as well. This is done to make the music sound "better" whne played through shit-ass ear buds or shitty MP3 players. Essentially, mastering everything at such a high level helps (they think) to maintain the "oomph" that is lost when songs are scrunched down into an MP3 format.
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