Totally agree that current commercia/pop female vocalists almost all sound unbearably awful in how they are recorded, and that's why I listen to none of them. But jazz female vocalists from the 50s up through Shirley Horne's early 90s recordings are fantastic. Give me Rosemary Clooney any day, and I'm happy.
Female vocals
What is it about female vocals that so many audiophiles adore? Many, many speaker reviews talk about female vocals at some point as if that was the zenith of recorded music. It's the same at audio shows. Just about every room is playing some version of the same, bland music. Just once I'd like to be drawn to a room because they were playing Tool or Opeth, but nooooo, it's jazz or Norah Jones.