How can you tell the quality of the recording?

Mapman, I've got to disagree with you on the quality of CD's over the past 30 years. Most CD's sold are Pop recordings. 30 years ago, many of the original pop CD's were rushed to market on early generation equipment by engineers still learning how maximize the new medium. The recent gain riding, dynamics squashing pop recordings have been just plain terrible. Overall I think only a paltry percentage of recordings sold are up to their full potential.

Sorry about the timeline error.
It's inexcusable, there is no need for a trade off. The medium is fully capable of delivering the balance of what's there without having to sacrifice the dynamics. Classical CD's are the proof.