That's interesting, Peter (Csontos), and somewhat surprising to me. I don't make any special claims for my hearing, but it has always been my experience that if a garbage recording is reproduced as Garbage A by one component, and as Garbage B by another component, the two garbage reproductions tend to be harder to distinguish, and certainly harder to judge as to which is more lifelike, than if a great recording is reproduced by the two components as Relatively Lifelike Sound A and Relatively Lifelike Sound B.
Basically, with a garbage recording the nuances that would otherwise distinguish their reproduction by the components being compared tend to be swamped by the inaccuracies of the recording. Which in turn makes any judgment about which reproduction is closest to the sound of live music pretty much meaningless, as the best answer is usually "neither."
Regards,
-- Al
