What is a bad recording?

from Claude...

Here are some examples of well-recorded music that can expose weaknesses in high-end stereo systems:

Steely Dan - "Aja" (1977)

This album is famous for its meticulous recording quality. On revealing systems, you might hear:

• Sibilance harshness if the treble is poorly tuned
• Bass bloat obscuring the tight, controlled low-end
• Loss of the wide soundstage if imaging is off
• The intricate percussion becoming jumbled rather than spatially separated

Diana Krall - "Live in Paris" (2002)

Her vocals are so intimately recorded that high-end systems with issues will reveal:

• Excessive brightness making her voice fatiguing
• Room resonances that muddy the upright bass
• Poor imaging that collapses the sense of venue space

Dire Straits - "Brothers in Arms" (1985)

One of the first digitally recorded rock albums:

• Mark Knopfler's guitar can sound thin or harsh on systems with resonant peaks
• The dynamic range can expose compression in electronics
• The deep bass can reveal port noise or room modes

Pink Floyd - "The Dark Side of the Moon" (1973)

• The synthesizer textures can sound congested rather than ethereal
• Clock sounds and effects can be harsh if high frequencies ring
• The wide panning can reveal channel imbalances

The irony is that these exceptionally well-recorded albums become torture tests - they reveal colorations, resonances, and distortions that lower-resolution systems mask. A poorly set up or poorly designed "high-end" system makes these recordings sound worse than they would on modest but well-balanced equipment.

I'm a jazz first guy.  All kinds of jazz.  1990's smooth jazz sounds great in the car, back ground, elevator. A lot of the music from that time is good music.  But most of the recordings in that era are terrible.  

@kymanor1 Jazz from that era

Mo t of on a b d j zz rec rding h s h ss and inf  mat on miss ng.

On my Spatial Sapphire speakers, Jethro Tull has a terrible-sounding song on the Stand Up LP. It’s the opening track, "A New Day Yesterday." The rest of the album sounds quite good, but even though I liked that song on my old, cheap speakers, I have to skip it now to spare my ears. In an interview Ian Anderson says that the producer was experimenting with the recording by whirling a microphone (like a lasso I imagine) to get a weird effect. It’s weird all right. Anderson thought it sounded good to his ears at the time, but damn. Revolver it isn’t. 

To me, many of the recordings of the late 70's and 80's that used too much compression and too many over dubs.  Listen to Muddy Waters "Folk Singer" recorded in the 50's on a good system sounds like you are in the room with him and total range of lows/highs.  Then listen to ELP Brain Salad Surgery, yikes a compressed glary mess