Recording Quality

I know a lot of you spend a good amount of coin getting the best sound you can.  My question is, how important is the recording itself?  I'm talking about the recording equipment used, the mixing board, the manufacturing process, etc.  Certain mixing boards (i.e. the board at Sound City) had a unique sound and many musicians loved it. 

So, given the playback equipment you have, can you tell that one recording was made better than others in the studio?

Thank you for your thoughts.