What's up with lousy bass on classic rock recordings?

Montrose S/T not to be missed. 

Mountain

Cream

Free

The Who “Live at Leeds” is a terrific recording (same for Live at Hull and Isle of Wight).

VH III has fine sonics.

@baylinor Tommy is a little above classic hard rock :)

You are correct there is no low level sub bass in older hard rock. I’d say it’s not much below 80hz. Try recordings with a prolific bassist like Phil Lynott, Jack Bruce, Felix Pappalardi etc. Or Beatles - Come together. If you are running Roon there are 779 recordings of Come Together to try :) Musica Nuda makes a fun version.

Maybe they had Cerwin-Vega systems in the control rooms. That would explain it.

On Tidal you might find my playlist

audiophile bass tracks 01

Just a small selection of nice songs with fine recorded bass.

I will build on this. Like up to a thousand songs. A little for everyone I hope.

Not much classical hard rock though of obvious reasons….

I find the Diamond Stars Halo very well recorded with all the bass you can wish for.