Do you listen to equipment or music.

My equipment allows me to listen to more than the music. I’m listening to the microphones used, the room, the mix, the eq, the cutting of the disk, the pressing. When it all comes together it’s audio nirvana. I’m at the point where I’d rather hear a superb recording of a bad polka band than a horrible recording of the Beatles. 

Sometimes the problem is not the equipment but the pressing. When I was at college in the mid 60’s one of my favorite albums was the John Mayall Bluesbreakers album known as the Beano album. This was some of Clapton’s best playing. A few years back I bought a copy off Amazon and it sounded so bad I only played it once. I didn’t realize it was a bogus copy. The music didn’t rise above the sound quality. On the other hand some music I prefer to listen to on the car audio system. I like to listen to SRV in the car cranked. However it is a very expensive CD because before you know it your driving 40mph over the speed limit.