mikeydee, I would say that if you're struggling to confine yourself to the last 5 years worth of recordings alone, then you are definitely doing something wrong. I think maybe you have possibly built the wrong kind of system for your tastes in reproduction...not that that would be the first time that's ever happened or anything. But, on the face of it, I'd say that there's something about your gear, or system or setup that is not currently offering you the kind of performance you're craving and that your penchant for blame on the recording quality is actually misplaced.
It's well known that some systems are more forgiving toward lesser quality recordings than others, that some drivers or speakers are more musical or that some CDP's, or TT's or carts are more forgiving than others. Musicality is a legitimate pursuit in reproduction and shouldn't be given short shrift or anything. Don't fall blindly for the old advice that the best systems are necessarily the ones that magnify the difference between the best recordings and the worst...if that were strictly true, then everyone would be in the same position that you're in - but they're not.
People occasionally make complaints about recording quality, it's true, but I really suspect it is usually a system-dependent playback problem, not so much truly a recording quality problem.
I would say that a good measure of the real success of a system is how much justice it does to the recordings that you most want to listen to - otherwise, your system has you held captive - it is telling You what it is that you want to listen to.
It's well known that some systems are more forgiving toward lesser quality recordings than others, that some drivers or speakers are more musical or that some CDP's, or TT's or carts are more forgiving than others. Musicality is a legitimate pursuit in reproduction and shouldn't be given short shrift or anything. Don't fall blindly for the old advice that the best systems are necessarily the ones that magnify the difference between the best recordings and the worst...if that were strictly true, then everyone would be in the same position that you're in - but they're not.
People occasionally make complaints about recording quality, it's true, but I really suspect it is usually a system-dependent playback problem, not so much truly a recording quality problem.
I would say that a good measure of the real success of a system is how much justice it does to the recordings that you most want to listen to - otherwise, your system has you held captive - it is telling You what it is that you want to listen to.