GREAT MUSIC - SO POORLY RECORDED...

I agree with the original poster - it is disappointing to hear great music that is poorly recorded.  We spend huge amounts of money to hear music as close to live as possible.  The artists are performing to the best of their ability, but it's a shame that because of ineptness in the recording side of the equation, we can't hear it the way it was intended.  It seems odd that some of the biggest acts don't insist on only the best engineers to assure a quality final product for their listeners.  I have many recordings by lesser known artists that sound superb.

@bongofury1956,

The disappointment is that we will spend small fortunes on equipment and purchase multiple versions of a recording (CD, SACD, Anniversary Issue, Remastered Issue, Original Vinyl, MoFi Vinyl, Blu Ray Disc, etc.) in the quest to get something that just sounds better than mediocre or worse.

Yeah, people were around the mics for Layla and Exile on Main Street (my two peeves), but either the mics were for crap or the engineer or artist had imbibed or smoked or whatever too much.  Someone wasn't checking the meters.

It's just a shame.  Nothing more, nothing less.  

Rich

Truth is high end audio reproduction equipment does not lie. While it is the true joy of the hobby to hear the marriage of great music with great recordings I sill can enjoy the music poorly recorded. Art for arts sake. 10CC fans can finish this sentence. 

Try the "3 bats live" from Ontario.
Vocals a little edgy but a very good live recording. Bass and guitars fine. You might miss Ellen but Aspen Miller not bad at all. The original studio true crap.
To you all. Don't say "all". All artists made both bad and good recordings. Often the best are on vinyl. Not because vinyl is better but because they messed least with the vinyl mastering. R.E.M and Stones made some recordings with absolute reference quality. It might be your unbalanced system...Try Maxwell for always top quality. And lots lots of others.