Isn't it really about quality of recording?

It's true that a really fine system will reveal all the flaws in a poor recording. It's good to concetrate on the music and not the "sound."  We keep improving our systems so that when we do get a good recording, it ia a genuine treat!

Keep Smiling!

I have been a professional sound engineer in one of the biggest studios in Switzerland for around 30 years, so feel free to ask any questions.

I am often surprised about the beliefs among hifi people and audiophiles about studios and studio engineers.

There are many recordings that are not as good as they can be. Only a small percentage are real masterworks. There are some recording engineers like the late Al Schmidt who really know what they are doing, and a lot of people who do the best they can, politely said. Also, most often the equipment used is mediocre at best. A microphone placed some inches apart from the best spot, wrong mic choice, bad recording room acoustics, bad choices in the mixing and / or mastering stage, all diminish the quality of the outcome, and can sum up to something I don’t want to listen to.

It is ironic that audiophiles often listen to music that was mixed and mastered on equipment that costs a small percentage of what the audiophiles paid for their system. Often, sound engineers say "Give me loudspeakers with bad resolution, because otherwise I will never finish my job".

"With my great system, it now sounds like it sounded in the studio" is a silly audiophile myth.

These are just some pretty random spotlights on "daily studio life".

But yes, recording quality is most important.

And I would say that there are two kinds of "good" systems - one that makes all music sound considerably good, and one that mercilessly shows you any flaws in the recording. I prefer the latter, because they often also show you all the great things the mixing and the mastering engineers did, while the former often fakes its "good sound", and has actually rather low resolution.

A great system can reveal the soul of the performance if the music is good but it was recorded poorly.

@rumi

Thanks for your perspective on recordings. Valuable to hear.

Personally, for years I pursued the latter “good” system… scrape details with lots of slam and over the years switched to the kind that makes all recording sound better… although there were a few early rock that sound like tin… and just cannot be salvaged. But those are rare.