I got to know quite well the manager of the Classical department at my local Tower Records. He had a very negative opinion of what he referred to as audiofools---those who care more about the sonic quality of a recording than its’ artistic content. My argument that the former could be a limiting factor in the listeners’ ability to perceive the latter was met with a blank stare.
That manager was a big fan of Leonard Bernstein, which was in a way perfect; Bernstein’s recordings are high in artistic content, somewhat low in sound quality. I hate when that happens; a lot of my favorite Pop (non-Classical) music and artists were also recorded in mediocre or worse sound quality. I'm too much of an audiophile to not care, too much of a music lover to let that stop me from listening to it and them.