Bit late to the thread, but poor mastering (i.e. compression, clipping) is a really big issue for modern records.

I've done a survey on my own music collection to try and identify the good and the bad. Results with graphs here:
http://www.codebunny.org/audio/quality/index.html

Duncan

Not that Duncan, the other one. No, not that one either.
System 1: Onkyo NR-609, Kef Reference Model 1, Kef 200C, Dune D1, Sony BDP-S760, Humax FoxSat HDR
System 2: Arcam A28, Spendor SA1, tweaked Asus Essence STX