Hi,
It's amazing how engineering practises vary, especially when you get compilations that contain recordings representing different studios and engineers over several decades. My Ray Charles box set has every type of recording--some are aggressive, others well engineered, others have amazing amounts of tape hiss from early analog days. I'm surprised they didn't use No-Noise or some of the noise removal pro stuff when they were remastered but maybe Ray didn't want to tinker with stuff.
With more recent artists you will still find these variations-- perhaps one selection on your SACD was engineered in a different studio or with a different engineer in a different location. In my view, a really accurate speaker lets you hear these differences.
As a former collector of vinyl for many years, such differences existed there as well, but because vinyl high frequencies typically roll off by 2 or 3 dB compared to digital recordings, they sound subjectively "softer" in the upper treble than many CDs. Still, I have lots of vinyl recordings that are poorly engineered and as irritating to listen to as some CDs.
Regards,
