Re: First pressings
Even in period, popular albums would go through several cuts - a lacquer was only good for one pull, each mother was only good for so many stampers, each stamper was only good for so many pressings, so "catalogue" recuts were frequent.
Most masters these days are kept in digital form, usually in addition to the analogue original. From the durability point of view, this is only sensible, and cutting from a digital copy of the master is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. Apart from anything else, the brick wall filter keeps ultrasonics out of the cutter head. Heads cost serious money to fix and new ones haven't been made for years.
Cutting from a commercial CD could be a different matter altogether, as you are stuck with the decisions of the CD mastering engineer, good or bad.
There is of course a boutique market in tape-to-vinyl cuts on restored valve kit, some of which are then sold for telephone numbers in facsimile sleeves to collectors. Magnificent artifacts...
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