Can Rock-N-Roll have great sound quality?

Maich , try the Rammstein material. Start with the latest; Mutter then work backwards . . Its recorded well and they rock . See the shows when they hit the states the first of the year...... Most all heavy music is tame in the fidelity dept. The Wall Mofi was the early exception. I think that the sacd of ELP s Brain Salad Surgery is recordrd well as well though is not heavy metal of course. Actually now that i think about it ... Black Oak Arkanasa released a great heavy album about two years ago , name slips me but was good fidelity. I will keep thinking buty the list will be short as most hard rock is poorly treated .

Maich,
Buckethead is way post rock'n'roll and even new wave either. He's definitely genius and superb guitar player. I've never listened to his solo albums, but I heard him with Bill Laswell live and recorded. In both cases they sound fantastic. If you like Buckethead and further "heavy stuff not so boring as Metallica", you should definitely check out Magma and also solo albums of Christian and Maurice Vander that are band leaders. You'll be lucky if you get these albums (CDs or records) bellow $30, but this is like an investment to paintings: it'll never drop bellow unless the condition of media gets worse. Check the heavy noise stuff by Goz of Kermeur!

To classic Rock'n'Roll such as Led Zeppelin, Cream, Genesis, most of Jethro Tull, some of Supertramp I'd use tone controlls. King Crimson stuff seems to be in very good shape except their first two albums.
Almost all punk of 80's doesn't need tone controlls.

Why bother?

RUSH-Moving Pictures-MFSL.

This is just my opinion, but it seems to me that rock-n-roll/metal cds produced in the States are severely lacking in fidelity when compared to those made in some other countries. If you are interested in expanding your musical horizons (geographically, as well as musically) you may want to check out the following:

Freak Kitchen: Move (2002, Sweden)
Nightwish: Wishmaster (2000, Finland)
Artrosis: In the Flowers' Shade (2000, Poland)

The only thing these three cds have in common is a higher level of fidelity than the vast majority of cds out there. These three bands are very different, but all very good at what they do. Now, if Artrosis and Freak Kitchen would just tour the States....