I have the 1997 remasters of everything. I have no problem with them. When the Super Deluxe sets started to get released with the Abbey Road remasters I thought they sounded even better. I thought 2112 sounded better and that's when I went to HD Tracks and bought the Abbey Road editions of Rush through Caress. Right now, on my iPod and Plex server, I have the Abbey Road versions for Rush through Permanent and the 1997 remasters for Moving through Hold Your Fire. Everything after that is original expect for Vapor Trails. I have the Andy Van Dette remaster of that which is far superior to the original and was only available on HD Tracks. Seems to be gone now. Glad I have it as I did not like Bottrill's remix version.
From what I have read, the Sector ones are the worst.
The problem with the '97s for me is that there's not enough low end and the high end overwhelms everything beginning with Permanent Waves and gets progressively worse until A Show of Hands. Rush through Hemispheres is not optimal either but at least tolerable. The Sectors have a low end clarity that isn't on anything else except for the audiophile releases. But the 2015's would be my go to in most cases so far.
So... the question was for my ripping project. I'm putting all my CDs to harddrive; I'm keeping different versions of songs - rerecordings, remixings, live recordings - but not all the different remasters. So I was trying to decide with Rush. Here's what I decided on, after playing them on my home system at volume:
Rush through Caress Of Steel: The original Mercury releases. (The choice was between that and the Sector remasters)
2112 and A Farewell To Kings: the 2015 remasters that came with the Deluxe versions (The choice was between the originals (2112), the remasters (AFTK), the deluxe versions (2112), the 40th versions (both) and the Sector versions (both)).
Hemispheres: The Remaster (the choice was between the Remaster and the Sector set)
Permanent Waves: The original "atom" release (The choice was between the original and the Sector release)
Moving Pictures: The 2011 remaster (The choice was between the original "atom" release, the Sector release, the 2011 deluxe version)
For the two live records, I went with the Remaster version, because of the additional tracks (the choice was between the Remaster or the Sector version; I honestly didn't really hear much difference between the two versions for both sets)
I still have to listen to Signals through Power Windows (the choice is the original W. German "atom" version and the Sector version) and A Show Of Hands (original versus the Sector version). I'm leaning to the original versions. The Sector sets sound pretty good on my stereo, but they are a shade "bright" for me. Especially with the first three releases, there was a warmth to them, and the Sector ones seemed to "tax" my ears a bit at higher volume in a way the originals didn't.
I didn't mention Hold Your Fire; I'm keeping both because the mixes are different.