Do you trust your system?

@dain 

I luckily found a set of equipment and a room setup that if a song is off, it’s likely recorded that way. I trust my system to do a decent job.  I wonder do others get to a point where they are more critical of mastering techniques than something wrong with their equipment?

I don't understand. I suppose because I come at it from a different direction. As I read your post it seems that you are constantly looking for the bad in the music rather than enjoying it. Do you enjoy the music? Or is it the criticism you enjoy? Either way, it seems like work rather than play. I'm not trying to be overly critical of you but I can't imagine  enjoying music under those conditions.

Relax. Enjoy. Problems will arise at some point. But there's no need to look for them. Just react and resolve them t when they show themselves

IF your references are studio multitrack w limiters and reverb, keep chasing your own tail….

I make my own reference high speed tape recordings…..

Also, get out and hear other..great..systems, stop drinking your own “ best “ bathwater…..

See also Waterlily, Sheffield, etc….

oh, almost forgot…and as i capture music on tape it also goes right into two bad A ADC, Wadia and Ayre….

Fun…..

I wonder do others get to a point where they are more critical of mastering techniques than something wrong with their equipment?

50/50… for me.
A few months ago I listened to an old 80s song and it had a triangle that jumped to a speaker… so I thought I had a blown tweeter… but somehow I concluded that it was just a bad recording.

Other times the recording is just more obviously bad.

I should listen to what people with more modern gear do.

@steakster - As somebody who has worked in the record business for a number of years, one thing I can tell you is that with very few exceptions, the last people who care about how anything sounds are record label executives!

That being said, there are a lot of recordings, vinyl and digital, that sound OK on the music systems or earbuds that most people listen to music on; they are not making these records to sound great on audiophile gear; they're making them to sound good on most any generic music gear, and if it also sounds good on top quality gear, that's just a bonus... .