Is Recording quality the real culprit?

YES

Interesting on how so many agree on the original post and go into detail on why they agree yet, when you speak about equalizers in your system it's against all "Audiophile" beliefs.   Ask the question about having an equalizer in your system and you will have hundreds jump down your throat that it's not pure, you aren't hearing the music the way it was intended, blah blah blah.

My argument to that for many years has been not all recordings are not engineered well, the engineer isn't in your room, doesn't know your system etc...  Many of the imperfect recordings can be resolved with an equalizer or at least make them listenable which can expand your play list.  

Pretty much the same discussion different with responses. 

Well don’t we all need just a little more cow bell…LoL! You want to hear a recording done right…. Check out:

St. James Infirmary by Baba Blues on Glimer of Gold

@immatthewj - that’s exactly where my mind went when @curiousjim mentioned single mic recordings. The Junkies also cut their third album as a single mic recording in a church (like Trinity Sessions) called Sharon. However the record execs didn’t like the product and it was only released by the band in 2022. Sharon has several songs that wound up on Caution Horses (Tuesday Morning, Cheap is How I Feel, Powderfinger) along with other songs. I’m a Junkies junkie so maybe I’m not a good judge but it’s not clear to me what the issue was with Sharon. I think I’ll play it next to see if I can find the problem(s) 😀

Matt

I still sing along in my car with a subwoofer under my seat. It's all beating a log with a stick. The real question is why we enjoy it so much. Too many equate audio as some sort of search. It can be but to some it is a sad intersection of insecurity and cash/debt.