What is a bad recording?

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 

@toddalin ​​& @erik_squires ...
I suspect it was done on purpose....but only because I lived through that era... ;)

These days I stream pretty much exclusively, and I generally use random play from my huge libraries. So I come across all manner of recordings in one listening session, certainly there are some recordings most would consider bad but between my system and the random play mode I only have to put up with a single cut from a bad recording. If I were playing hard copy likely no chance album or cd makes it to end. 

I do believe one can assemble a system with both high resolution and remain musical however. I've always assembled systems by voicing them with mediocre recordings, the one's I'd play during any listening session, this also inherently 'helps' the lesser recordings sound better than they would otherwise. Having said this, I can't recall a single album I've cut from my streaming libraries due to poor sound quality. I will say the single most bothersome thing in poorer recordings are those suffering from the dreaded volume 'wars' syndrome. Mostly this modern commercial recordings which thankfully don't interest me in any case. The types of compression I hear from older recordings not so bothersome. 

Probably even more consequential than the recording quality and my audio system is how I've trained myself to accept recording qualities for what they are, a less analytical, judgemental mindset goes a long way!

toddalin    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 

The guitar sounds nice until 11:45. The recording sounds noisy/glared from 11:46 where EC starts to sing. EC voice sounds bad because our ears are steered to guitar sounds (electronic sound). As soon as EC’s voice (natural sound) comes in, we hear the true noisy guitar sound (unnatural hi-fi sound).

Alex/Wavetouch audio