Isn't it really about quality of recording?

@ghdprentice  I have 27,500 LPs (about 2,000 duplicate operas) mix of classical, jazz, vocal, opera, ethnic, etc.   I also have 7,000 78s.   I am 66, collecting since 3.  I live in Los Angeles area and have had many great stores to purchase from, some collections, some donations and still some good stores although the price of good LPs has inflated whereas CD prices have deflated.  I've never been to Arizona but have purchased 100s of records at record stores in Las Vegas, NYC and throughout CA in the past.

+1 sns

Most recordings are good enough. Don’t blame the recording if it doesn’t sound good to you. It’s probably your system that isn’t set up well (in your room). No matter how much you’ve spent on cables. :)

Genesis - Trespass, is a very good recording. Bowie - Heroes, not so much (but there are good parts). Bowie - Lazarus, great great great!

Thanks for the Purple tip.

To me it’s, to borrow from math and data science, Garbage in, Garbage out. A bad recording will probably sound bad on a good system depending on how resolving it is.

Contrary, I'd say the content is more important than the recording quality.

So you like Elvis, and the recording quality back then was limited by the type of equipment used in the 50s/60s.  No matter what fancy digital mastering techniques, they can only do so much.

And now, your playback equipment is high end enough to bring Elvis "back to life" and appears he's singing in front of you.  That doesn't change the fact the recording was really not up to today's standard, but who cares?  Your toes are tapping!

Enjoy the good music and not worry too much about the logic or technicalities.

1970's  Lps,  Jbls, Altecs.  Was pretty familiar with the sound of my records.

Now have a good hiend system, listening to some of the old stuff one can hear the limitations of the older recordings, then some of these older recordings sound great on newer equipment. Always when buying new stuff never pay more then what you can resell it for quickly, just in case its not to your liking.