I agree that the advent of the various compression and equalization schemes and even the much adored RiAA curves used on records are all variants that are used to tell the consumer they are too ignorant to choose the unaltered master file even if its quality is superior to the adulterated version. Giving the masses the ability to choose the higher quality recording would likely not change the status quo significantly but would be a boon to the "audiophile" who likes to keep the audio pure. Just knowing that the recording was unaltered would make the audiophile giddy on one hand and depressed on the other. Giddy to think they had the best possible source recording and depressed knowing it can never be reproduced perfectly. Nothing makes an audiophile happier than chasing his own tail.