Isn't it really about quality of recording?

Could not agree more! I own both vinyl and cd's that make my system play like it cost a million bucks and others that can make it sound like a Best Buy closeout! Some equipment may be more forgiving to poorly recorded/produced material, but in the end it still sounds like *** to me.

Good equipment helps, especially speakers and room acoustics. Yet with a bad recording, even the best equipment can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

Not only are many recordings bad, different recordings can be bad in different ways. Even "good" recordings can have wildly varying bass levels, for example.

If one wants to play only audiophile recordings, there is a fairly well defined target. If one wants to play a wide variety of recordings, sooner or later, an equalizer will be in the cards.

Hi Jumia,

I think your point will or won't make sense depending on the type of music listener you have become. There are a lof of musicians who listen right through the equipment and even the recording quality and all they hear is the performance.  Their brains and ears are wired together

Some audiophiles can hear a system regardless of the room.  I cannot.   I can't do either of these things.  I need a quiet room with controlled reflections and smooth bass response or I find my brain has to work too hard to enjoy the music.

To each their own.

Mediocre, bad, or not so ideal recordings, for various of reasons, can sound confused, lacking in life and in some cases are barely listenable in lesser systems.

Still they will never sound ideal, but how many times have you heard the phrase from a friend or dealer saying that his or her system does not play well because of a bad recording, skip or be cautious.

Same material on a well balanced and better system is transformed to something with a meaning, easier to follow and the  performance has more juice.

Compared to the majesty of what a great recording can offer, these ones are more than lacking but at the same time you realize that your music collection has grown considerably.

It’s both actually but the dead end is thinking a hifi can transform a particular recording into something it is not. A very easy trap to fall into especially since no two setups ever sound exactly the same.