Mastering, especially modern mastering, compresses the bejesus out of the end product. Trust me, you do not want to listen to uncompressed recordings under real

Mastering, especially modern mastering, compresses the bejesus out of the end product. Trust me, you do not want to listen to uncompressed recordings under real-world conditions. Details will be so quiet you can't hear them. It'll sound thin and dull. Most modern pop has maybe 5-6db of dynamic range. Really loose, open mastering will be 20db or so. As someone who both records/mixes albums and a live-instrument musician, a live instrument in the room sounds utterly different than any recording. Not necessarily worse, just different. The pursuit of "accuracy" in audio playback is childish and naive. The sound of a recording is a function of technical limitations, compromises, and aesthetic decisions as much as it is a product of the raw source sounds. Don't make it sound accurate, make it sound GOOD! And that usually means a lot of compression, and often deliberate distortion.