Perhaps for someone suffering from 'audiophile angst', a common disease around here I think, is simply to have three libraries, one for near SOTA recordings, one for near SOTA performances, and a third one, much much smaller, for SOTA recording/engineering and SOTA performances combined. For those with a large library of 'ordinary' recordings (a fourth category) they could simply just have a forgiving front end with no pretention to SOTA, or an equalizer which everyone knows cannot be SOTA, and just play them for their musical content. This filing method would help you to easily select a recording that would meet your extant expectations.
An aside. I used to be an analogue nut with some pretty good stuff but once I got all of the great stuff and pinned down soundstaging (ala Pearson) when ever I put on a good record all I could hear (forgive the hyperbole) was the 'great audio'. I gave away my audio accouterments and records and dumbed down (relatively speaking) to digital which can't sound good anyhow (as we all know) and I'm happy as a pig wallowing in the mud.
Hang in there, you'll find a way to enjoy it. I did! :-)
An aside. I used to be an analogue nut with some pretty good stuff but once I got all of the great stuff and pinned down soundstaging (ala Pearson) when ever I put on a good record all I could hear (forgive the hyperbole) was the 'great audio'. I gave away my audio accouterments and records and dumbed down (relatively speaking) to digital which can't sound good anyhow (as we all know) and I'm happy as a pig wallowing in the mud.
Hang in there, you'll find a way to enjoy it. I did! :-)