What is a bad recording?

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

Use your tone controls if you have them.  Most pop recordings are mastered all over the place.  One could use a good room eq software (Dirac) to balance your listening position.   The best advice I can give is to find a recording that’s a benchmark with acoustic instruments, preferably classical, and hear if the instruments sound realistic.  But trying to do this with popular rock stuff is a losing battle.  

@mihorn - Oh, I definitely hear that !! EC absolutely sounds like he's singing right next to your ears.  

A bad recording to me is one with a lot of grainy static like sound. Or recorded with a very small soundstage that doesn’t go past the speakers. Or vocals too loud or quiet. Really amazing the wide range of quality. Good recordings are really a joy to listen to. 
 

I have Rockport Avior ii speakers driven by a Boulder 866 amp 

@ronboco - Can you give us specific examples??