Jerry Wexler produced Aretha's best-known Atlantic albums, and Tom Dowd engineered them. Tom was an old-school WWII generation engineer, not an one with "audiophile" concerns. He recorded pretty "hot" (pushing the meters into the red), sometimes too much so.
But whatever the sound, the songs, her singing, and the musical accompaniment (provided by the best studio band in the world, The Swampers) are just magnificent. If you are listening to her singing those songs while that band is playing behind her, and you're thinking about the sound quality of the recording, best check your pulse. ;-)