What is a bad recording?

Erik,

Early in my journey I had Sennheiser HD414s that made great recordings like Workingman’s Dead or Pentangle sound amazingly detailed, but my beloved Chess reissues in the Real Folk Blues series by Muddy, Wolf, Sonny Boy, etc were harsh and unpleasant. I got a pair of Stax SR5 electrostatic phones, and lo and behold, not only did the great recordings sound even better, but the mono lo-fi Chess records lost their harshness and the music came through, warts and all.  And it wasn’t for lack of detail but smooth flat response and no distortion. Mayb3 the warmth bump didn’t hurt!

I owned the Stax SR5 gold...

One of the best "timbre" experience in headphone...Low cost other Stax did not have this natural timbre...I dont know for the higher models as Omega and few under it...

I got a pair of Stax SR5 electrostatic phones, and lo and behold, not only did the great recordings sound even better, but the mono lo-fi Chess records lost their harshness and the music came through, warts and all.  And it wasn’t for lack of detail but smooth flat response and no distortion.

So this is what I think I'm asking, are there really bad recordings, or just systems with too much character to play them well?  Are we better off at the end of the day with warm and laid back systems ?? 

Hey Erik, 

I'm really fond of a lot of '90s alternative music and some of it is really well recorded, like "Puzzle" by dada. "Puzzle" is an amazing alternative rock record and it is recorded really well.

On the other hand, I really like the music on "God Fodder" by Ned's Atomic Dustbin, however I do not like the style in which it is recorded. It is very fatiguing, hot and jumbled. I still love it, but it is not easy to listen past the way it is recorded. However, on my current system, which leans towards musical vs. revealing, it is listenable. On some of my previous system it was nearly unlistenable.

Oh, speakers are vintage Infinity RS1.5 with the EMIT Tweeter and Watkins dual voice-coil Woofers.
 

"So this is what I think I’m asking, are there really bad recordings"

Oh yes!  Go to 11:45 and listen to what an under-padded microphone sounds like.  The better the system, the more notable it becomes.

I bet Eric cringes every time he listens to this one.

https://youtu.be/cDAGS8VZKh0