@jumia - I’ve found that it is very easy to hear a great or good recording on almost any system. However, it is very very difficult to identify a truly poor or bad recording, because every little step up the never-ending chain of system resolution reveals the sustain, decay, and nuance of each and every venue the recording occurred in - the subtle acoustics of each recorded context. Tracks I had once believed were poor recordings have been slowly revealed to be extremely well recorded, over the course of my audio journey - my equipment at each earlier point was simply not good, or sufficiently resolving enough for me to know better. Having come this far, I have simply learned that while good recordings are easily beyond debate, that I know never to assume a recording as poor, because the ‘bad’ ones seem to get fewer and fewer the further along I come.
I hope this makes sense to you. There’s a whole Everest to climb with this adventure we take on as audiophiles - I hope you don’t ever settle for anything less, because with each step up, you’ll hear things you never believed was possible : )
in friendship - kevin