What is a bad recording?

To me, an example of a "bad" recording is John Lewis's "The Bridge Game," or his 4 CD interpretation of Bach's "The Well-Tempered Clavier, " which was released in 1986.  It's a wonderful performance, including bass, guitar and string quartet.  If you ever want to relax and meditate with some truly tasteful and sophisticated jazz/classical crossover music, this is a real winner.  For some strange reason it is not available on any streaming service, but I would urge anyone interested in this type of music to find a CD copy.  The downside is that the instruments are buried in a thick digital fog.  It's not unlistenable--on the right system it's pleasant enough--but it's far from what we would expect from a digital recording today.

When I first started listening to high resolution music one of the brands I came across which I just could not listen to was 2L.no

All sounded too hard and bright to me, and really kind of stand outs in this regards compared to what I was downloading from HD tracks. 

The majority of the music I listen to has many flaws, when speaking about the recording and mastering processes. The worst to me is the use of compression. When this music came out, radio play was a big deal, and the idea was to have it all sound loud, all of the time. The engineers did this on purpose, based on the masses of listeners and their sources, not us few. However classical and jazz recordings are better in this regard vs rock recordings. All recorded music has limitations, compared to live, unamplified music in a nice sounding environment. How do I listen to bad recordings? I have always listened to the "musicianship", and the "composition", first and foremost. These are the elements that move me most. Of course, I appreciate great recording quality, but I "listen" as if it were a "performance", just for me.

45 plus years ago there were no bad recordings to my ears unless it was a badly scratched record. It was all about the music. Had a decent rig. Carver pre amp Carver amp ,  sony tt, Genises 2 way 10" speakers, good room accustics.

Today with a revealing rig. Odyssey amp, Musichall mmf 9.1 tt, Soundsmith cart, Modded Magnapan 1.7i s, I cant listen to the bad recordings. Ex. Eric Clapton Layla album, Utopia Utopia, late 60s Neil Young, etc. Other barely listenable ones are late 60s Stones, Led Zep, Beatles, etc. They have small soundstage, lack dynamics, lack detail. Alot of lead guitar just sounds bad.

Yet, a typical MoFi, Analog Prod record can sound great. So sadly my revealing system has no grace for bad recordings. Same goes for cds, streaming.

Badly recorded albums are one thing...

I can deal with that...

But i cannot deal with music with  too much studio  mixings, well or not...

I prefer classical, jazz and non amplified music instruments of the world and voices...

I cannot listen anything else...

I never listen really to rock or pop...

I bought one album of the Stones i hear few times and never again in 1966 or 67....

I never bought any other pop music or rock....( i loved some songs sometimes for sure, the "papas and the mamas" for example but not all the albums.I remember very well the first time i heard them with  "California"  where i was it was outside my home from the street) 

Now i know why i dont like most pop music, at the times i did not know why i was not very enthralled by many groups of pop etc ...

The musical content is too poor most of the times and the artificiality of the mixing kill music ...