How can it be that some old recordings sound sublime?


How do some older records sound insanely great?

I'm listening to Bill Evans "Song for Debbie" on vinyl. The soundstage is palpable. This is a live recording from 1961.   How is this possible?  
128x128jbhiller
Don't forget that recordings, starting about 1982, had digital involved.  Current digital might be much more acceptable, but I don't like most cd's until about 2000.
"How can it be that some old recordings sound sublime?"

How can it be that so many new recordings don't? 

Compression, auto-tune, Apple Inc......(insert long list here). ;-)
Cheers,
Spencer
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.