Music first or sound first?

A person who’s a natural tinkerer / gear person and just likes the science / tech side of things? More power to ya.

And bad mastering is just a bad, bad thing.

However, it’s very sad to me to think a person couldn’t enjoy beautiful music because the recording doesn’t resemble whatever their idea of a “well-recorded piece of music” is.  
For a multitude of reasons, I find that very sad.

It’s interesting how tech advancements have gone the other way with music.  
Even 20 years ago, the likelihood that one would have a pair of speakers larger than the size of a baseball with a receiver and CD player was much higher than today.  
Now it’s a speaker the size of a baseball just spitting out streaming service data.  
Retail shops seem totally okay with their “in-store music” being whatever shrill noise pollution the checkout person behind the counter is spitting out of their cell phone speaker.  
It seems like poor ol’ music has got it comin’ & goin’; bastardized by modern consumerism and, conversely, merely fodder for gear heads to listen to their gear.  
There’s got to be a better middle ground.

Normal music listening used to be: tuner-or-TT-or-cassette deck-or-CD player —> integrated amp / receiver —> speakers-larger-than-a-baseball.  
That setup was not “audiophile,” it was just normal. Audiophiles merely had more advanced versions (better individual pieces, separates, etc.).  
Now the standard for “normal” has dropped to truly pitiful levels.

Perfect World Scenario: the vast majority of people had a normal / non-pitiful method of music-listening, and audiophiles merely enjoyed music via their more advanced method, devoid of the dismissals and narrow-mindedness that accompanies the “I only listen to ‘well-recorded music’ mindset.”