What is your audio axiom?

This idea of unique and/or individual recording quality variation is something that has really come into focus for me in recent years. I derive enjoyment from the nearly endless variation in recording qualities, by this I mean paying attention to the choices of producers/engineers in producing a work of art. We are not merely listening to musicians with these recordings, so many others involved to presenting these works of art. 

My scale of judgement has far surpassed just good and/or bad, mostly I just turn off the judgement and let the presentation come to me, listening sessions far more satisfying when one turns off the judgement cap. Some believe the more resolving a system becomes the more the warts will reveal themselves, no doubt this true so then it becomes how one perceives those warts. 

"I love re-mastering really old material. All those guys wore ties to work." Rudy Van Gelder

Excellent post/topic @2psyop, lots of good stuff here.  I am reminded of a favorite piece of advice from Animal House:

Boon: I gotta work on my game.

Otter: No, no, no, don't think of it as work. The whole point is just to enjoy yourself.

Which camp are you in….music or illusion?

“The quality of any given recording will make or break the listening experience” is illogical. The quality of the music transcends the quality of the recording or the illusion of the system reproducing the music.

I know many music lovers who value lower quality recordings and rare bootleg records. Some collect rare events like concerts illegally obtained from primitive cassette recorders over perfect studio albums. Others have radio shows made on early mono reel to reel recorders that even the radio stations have erased.
 

Music in the home is not made any more superior because of the gear it’s played through. If the source is a bad performance, it remains a bad performance. Real music lovers are not 100% obsessed or worried about the recording quality. If you can’t accept that then chuck away all your old archival recordings in low fidelity, and never even consider listening to the original greats.

Sorry OP but in my opinion you have your priorities all wrong with recordings being paramount. The recording is not the defining point for a true music lover.

The real question is are you a music lover or just out for a listening experience….. two different things and which ball you want to fetch.

All valid responses and all are appreciated. No criticisms at all. I do agree with many here about music as the paramount issue or significant part of the listening experience. If someone likes “not ideal recordings” or enjoys music that is not necessarily high fidelity it is not something that bothers me all that much. The question I posed is more in line with the high fidelity or audiophile experience. Given two identical albums ( just an example) that were recorded well but one sounded better because my perception of the recording makes it sound more live, organic, true to the artist intent or desired listener experience. I would prefer that one. Of the recordings I listen to, the better sounding ones, are more appealing to ME. That’s why I proposed the thread topic because I thought it would be enlightening and informative to expand that question to other Audiogon audiophiles.

BTW everyone here has different priorities with regard to listening to music. It’s a big world with different people and different ways of doing things. That’s a big part of this forum. Share, learn and grow. Of course listening to music is important to all of us.