The recording of a significant amount of modern pop and rock music goes way beyond the use of relatively simple eqs, compression and reverb that would have been the staples of the signal chain in studios before the advent of computer based recording. The result is that a lot of modern pop/rock recordings do not sound great. That is is the fault of the use of the technology and not the technology itself, I should add as evidenced by the fact that there are many excellent computer based digital recordings of other musical genres such as classical and jazz. As far as I'm concerned, unless the recording is totally excreable, I'll listen whatever music I like regardless of the recording quality. I'don't subscribe to the theory that a revealing system makes bad recordings sound worse, rather that it makes it easier to hear "through" the recording to the music.
Do you trust your system?
I was constantly upgrading gear, demoing songs, reading reviews, trying to find out why I had the feeling that the song I was playing shouldn’t sound the way it does. Something off or lacking, I luckily found a set of equipment and a room setup that if a song is off, it’s likely recorded that way. I trust my system to do a decent job. I wonder do others get to a point where they are more critical of mastering techniques than something wrong with their equipment? Admittedly, it’s easier to say how a piece of gear or cable made some significant difference, but in what exactly since the music sources are so wildly manipulated by engineers?