Is Recording quality the real culprit?

As your system evolves everything is improved, even bad recordings. It can be no other way. As others have said you just need to embrace the "suck" and look for the aspects of these bad recordings that you like better in the improved system. Far worse to put together a system that makes everything sound the same. I think this is the reason so many embrace vintage equipment. 

Yeah those terrible mastering technicians. Like they had the final say in how the performance was recorded. Its called appealing to the greatest number of folks and mixing for the most common playback devices. Always has to be someone to blame I guess. I tend to blame the artists more than the technicians. Yeah just do whatever you want just give me my cocaine. 

"Give me more cowbell"...Sorry couldn’t resist.

I think as has been stated most of the pop recordings today are made to appeal to the earbud generation. That is, compressed and constrained. Sad...

ozzy

And in the 70s it was radio. 

@mapman Science and technology provides the tools used to both create and playback recordings.    That part is not an art.   There are right ways and wrong ways to do it.

Is that why designing equipment is called State of the art?

I mainly listen to orchestral and jazzey stuff. I'm 71, so old guy. When I look at some of the vinyl that I have from the 60's and some of the new remastered or otherwise remade from original tape recordings from DG you see that the engineers and mastering are noted with pride. Some of the jackets even list the microphnes used to record the sound. It is after all, science. Steely Dan as an expample usually credited the technical side. It is so easy to record now to an OK degree we are loosing the appreciation for the science. Who wants OK? Not me.

Oh boy!

OP   So why are we wasting our time spending so much money on audio equipment?

Because we want the best what is available for now or near future. We always want the best clean sound recordings and many audio companies have improved the sound. So far, this is the cleanest sound recording and audio playback system yet. Alex/WTA 

 https://wavetouchaudiopro.com/

@megabyte I suspect that jazz drew the better engineers and gear due to 'cred'; a more 'established' popular genre with the cognoscenti while early R&R was a bastard child of 'the kids' who just wanted loud & raucous...

Then, acts like the G. Dead appeared that not only wanted to have feckless concert sound with the Wall of Sound, but recording that reflected the same.....

Art pushed tech, which pushed art, and the cycle still continues.... ;)

I like to peruse the sound gear at live concerts and events to see what's being thrown at us.  Given the amount of screens and sliders that even smaller venues are cropping up, AI-run sound in the studios isn't far off....

"...soon you'll be dancing to "The White Zone is for loading or unloading Only..."

F. Zappa, "Joe's Garage" (I forget if it's Act One or Two....)

...or the sound of camera drones fluttering about....

....or the prices of tix to concerts.....makes going to a baseball or B'ball game cheap in contrast.....

"Living in the modern world is like having bees in your head....."  Firesign Theatre.

As a classical listener I find this not a big problem. 😆

Regarding rock v jazz historical recording quality, a key difference is that rock music is played on amplified instruments and is in general played a lot louder. This creates major issues with spill and achieving adequate levels of separation. In addition, you often have more instruments - or more instrumental tracks where overdubbing is involved - and more instruments sharing the same frequency range. All of this requires more outboard equipment and more complex mixing desks, so in terms of purity, the signal path is more compromised. And despite the fact that classic outboard gear from the fifties and sixties is now lusted after, a lot of it doesn't sound that great if you apply hi fi technical standards to it. Lastly, when multitrack recording was limited to four or eight tracks it necessitated signficant amounts of bouncing to get the desired track count, and bouncing seriously compromises fidelity. So it's not that surprising that historic jazz on average sounds a lot better than historic rock.

A BAD recording played on a good system still sound bad.

A poorly recorded great album still sounds like a great album when played on a good system.

@yoyoyaya 

Amazing reply. How do you come by such great insights into all this? Other comments you make are also impressive.  Even the one thread you created about heavier vinyl is also very interesting.

@emerging soul - thank you. I think that playing and recording music helps a lot to understand how music is reproduced. I've spent a long time listening to, playing and recording music. The recording and reproducing camps are often divided and I try to bridge the gap between the two.

Great "sounding" recordings are great, but imo and ime poor sounding recordings are great too, as my primary interest in listening are the performances and the compositions. These are the reasons I listen to music to begin with. Why obtain a great system if the recordings are poor? There is magic in these recordings, musically speaking, and I hear more of the music. The music is more important than sound, and it comes before great "sound". If you understand music, I believe it is easier to listen to poor recordings, because they give us "great music". I can appreciate those recordings that are sota, but it is the music that drives my emotions. Folks who cannot listen to their systems with poorly recorded music, I feel are more interested in the "sound" first, and the music second. Nothing wrong with this; whatever floats your boat. I have catered to music listeners and audiophiles most of my adult life, and there is a distinct difference between these two types of listeners. It is wonderful when both types are combined into one. I admit I am a combination, because I appreciate it all. If the music itself was not to my liking, which is quite rare, I would likely not listen to it for it's recording quality, except to show off my system, or make adjustments to my system. But it is the music for me, 1st, and I have stated this forever. My best, MrD.  

@yoyoyaya  @mrdecibel +1

@mrdecibel It's a coincidence that tonight I heard a Edie Gorme/Los Panchos CD that was horrid sounding just 10 years ago but I liked the performance (huge reverb on singers/Gorme sounded distorted).  I have upgraded my equipment including a near SOTA DAC/Pre-amp, transport, speakers and SOTA amps with matching cabling.  Tonight, I heard a mediocre but acceptable sounding Gorme, somewhat better Los Panchos and great guitar sound.  Overall, a real keeper until I purchase the LP (which I hope was mastered better than this).  I have 61,100 LPs/CDs/78s/R2R recordings.  This was one of the worst sounding.  Another poorly mastered early digital recording sounds acceptable with very good instrumentals and acceptable vocals.  Most recordings sound great (including monos and well recorded 78s).  Unfortunately since about 1995, pop and rock recordings suffer from poor recording technique, computer manipulation of the recording, high compression levels, etc.  Basically, worse than ever sound.  Jazz LPs and CDs have the most consistently great sound from all eras.  Many rock recordings are superior in their initial LP format than poorly remastered CDs/streaming.  85% of streamed music sounds worse than a comparable CD version with the other 15% sounding as good or better.  

@2psyop Tell me, is there a bad Bones Howe recording?  Various genres and I haven't been disappointed.  Or Robert Fine, or many others from the 50s and 60s.  

@fleschler , I have followed your journey and congratulate you on your room design and construction. A dream come true for sure! Continued listening enjoyment to you. My best, MrD. 

@immatthewj

"Without going back and looking for others, the two I am thinking of are the Cowboy Junkies first and second releases, Whites Off Earth Now and Trinity Sessions"

If your gear is god enough you can hear (in Trinity Sessions) that Margo is singing into a mic and it’s being amplified to bring her up to the volume of the rest of the band, it’s really trippy.

That's above my pay-grade, @thom_oz .

Beato Interviews Alan Parsons

If everything else is OK, the weakest link is the quality of the recording, compounded by the fact that our hearing declines with age You're not going to win folks. But I'll be damned if I am going to have a steady diet of only the very best recordings and forgo my favorite music.

I think that maybe you can’t polish a turd, but perhaps you can get rid of the smell, LOL!  Growing up in the ‘70’s, I have listened to most of the classic rock from that period hundreds of times, such as Led Zep and Jerthro Tull.  Having heard the commercial release so many times, I have been drawn to bootlegs from that era, sometimes concerts that I actually attended.  I have found that with a good, well-balanced system, like I have I think, even the bootlegs that are not great sound better on my system because of the way that the soundstage is presented, with depth and width, so even if the SQ can’t be improved, the listening experience can be.  I am very pleased with the way my system presents everything, good or bad.  Good quality recordings sound amazing and bad quality recordings sound less bad.