GREAT MUSIC - SO POORLY RECORDED...

For me Bruce’s The Wild The innocent The E Street Shuffle is of reference quality. Also his best... Also fine on cd/streaming even if unfortunately a little hissed (or compressed - not sure) in the mids.

Still looking for the best vinyl mastering of Supertramp Crime of the century. The cd transfers and remasterings no good at all. Bass light and screaming.

Have recently found the best so far sounding vinyl (Juno records) of Rock ’n Roll Animal and Dark side of the moon (for loud listening). The sharp edges on guitars and sax is taken down.

Older Doobie Brothers never disappoint. Takin' it to the streets - true perfection.

My limited experience with Buffalo Springfield has me posting here. Their lps sounded awful until I heard the "What’s That Sound" box. What a transformation!
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I recently listened for the first time to an OP of Bruce Springsteen "The Wild, The Innocent, and The E Street Shuffle". I really enjoyed it but found it to be a little on the bright side, certainly not reference quality.

@slaw, I was very familiar with the three Buffalo Springfield albums (my High School garage band included their "Mr. Soul", "Bluebird", and "Hot Dusty Roads" in our "repertoire") by the time my teen combo opened for The New Buffalo (BS drummer Dewey Martin and three hired sidemen, one of the Bobby's brother Randy Fuller) in '69. Dewey had sounded somewhat "weak" on their recordings (their "producers" were amateurs), but not so live! I got a valuable drumming lesson watching and listening to him play my Ludwig drumset in that Monte Vista High School gymnasium. Turned my notion of what good drumming is on it's head, in fact. Bye bye Rock band drummers, hello studio musicians!

Historically, most recorded music was only listened to on consoles and record players. 99 percent of consumers (including recording artists and engineers) never cared about "high fidelity". I've talked to dozens of musicians none of whom own decent playback equipment. Ironically, the one format released to cater to connoisseurs was prerecorded open reel tape which actually sounded worse!( I sent Mason Williams an open reel deck so he could listen to some of his own tapes. He was kind enough to send me copies). It's almost a fluke that many records sound as good as they do. 

Most Simon and Garfunkel records.