Good music is such a joyous experience when it's well recorded/engineered. At the same time when good music like Eric Clapton's classic Layla is poorly recorded it makes me cringe. Recording and engineering is such an art. I would recommend an interesting book: "Making Rumors" by Ken Caillat. What's interesting to me is that the book tracks one of the most famous rock albums of all time and it's written by the sound engineer!
How much is about the recording
For myself, I'm comfortable in knowing I have arrived. At my own personal audio joy through years of empirical data and some engineering knowledge and application. I just wonder how many like minded individuals find as much joy in finding the best recordings vs the perceived next best gear. Peace.