How can it be that some old recordings sound sublime?

I think we can all agree that it's a shame.  I want to go back to some of my favorite modern recordings (I'll define that as those made north of 1990) to see if any compete with the one from the original post.  For instance, I always believed Clapton Unplugged was well done.  But I now need to go listen to see if it has the depth in soundstage, imaging, and if the notes/symbols, etc. hang in the air they way they do with the Bill Evans album.  

Unplugged  on vinyl does sound great exhibiting the attributes you mention. Cheers,
Spencer

The problem on the early CD's was not the fault of the digital domain. It was the fault of the, I won't call them recording engineers ... let's call them "sound processing people."  I'm fortunate to have plenty of CD's cut from  master tapes with no added reverb and little if no EQ ... just flat recordings right off of the master tape. These include recordings that were made in the 1940's, '50's and 60's.  They are simply amazing. Comparing commercial CD's to these is like comparing a Ugo to a Ferrari. No contest.

Today I got a copy of Bill Evans’, Sunday at the Village Vanguard. Wow. This sounds amazing--not to mention it is just brilliant music all around.

The recording made me think that my system is just fine--if not fantastic (for me). I’ve been critical of my system recently, thinking it had some real shortcomings. The realism of this Bill Evans’ work makes me realize that it is possible my system is just revealing recordings for what they are--meaning so many are not well done and maybe my system is unforgiving with them.

When I listen to this recording, I think that I could take this hifi setup to a desert island and be forever happy as a clam.