Isn't it really about quality of recording?

It's best to work past listening to the recording.  How many live venues have pinpoint imaging, tight bass?  If I worry too much about recordings, it cuts the enjoyment of the music.  

Good recording and good systems makes a difference.

Interesting topic as I have discussed this over and over again with many audiophiles.

Gary from Genesis speakers did a demonstration a number of years back where he produced 5 different materials on LP of the same song.  Each of the materials improved upon the other as far as sound quality.

As an audio manufacturer, we struggled with this for many years.  We even built a preamp that where you could select from 5 different resistors to compensate from the different recoding qualities.  I do not prefer metal film resistors but when everyone was asleep, the metal film were excellent at low level volumes in retrieving details in the recording.

How do we manufacturer a product that pleases everyone?  Well you can't.  The difference for us is that we can customize our products for every system.  So that is where we settled.

As far as bad recordings, we believe that we have a good balance in our products so we an retrieve the detail but also produce the musicality some or most people prefer (but not all).

It is sure a balancing act.

Happy Listening,.

I often hear talk about bad recordings and good recordings, but what are the particular qualities that qualify a recording as bad or good for you?

The only recordings I qualify as truly bad are those with totally quashed dynamics, generally victims of loudness wars. These are mostly 'commercial' recordings, genres I generally stay away from, most from digital studio recording era. Far fewer of these from analog studio recording era. These recordings are the true turds, no audio system can make them sound better.

The other problematic areas can be timbre and/or equalization anomalies. Timbre issues very closely allied to excessive compression, IME, allowing more micro dynamic expression makes up for some of these deficiencies. Freq. anomalies I generally  hear as boosted highs, less often, excessive or bloated bass.

Sound staging and imaging issues can be another area of concern.

With the exception of the totally quashed dynamics recordings, I've found vast majority of other challenged recordings to sound more engaging as my system has improved. Mostly its just sheer resolving and transparency that makes so many recordings more involving regardless of recording deficiencies. I've also found state of mind is important to maximizing listening pleasure with lesser recordings. One has to be ever mindful of individual recording qualities, quit judging the system with the mediocre quality recordings. I find interspersing known good quality recordings with the not so good brings things back into perspective, I'm then reminded my system is indeed capable of totally natural, highly resolving playback. Repeat this over the years and one falls into music loving mode far more easily. Listening in analytical mode all the time ensures dissatisfaction with far more recordings.