What is a bad recording?


In the ongoing battle of having a system that is too laid back versus one that is too revealing of recording faults, I want to ask you all, what are examples of good music that in your system plays badly?  

Please mention your speakers too  if possible. 

erik_squires

Any number of DIO CD's I have that are rocking, but they sound bottomless, distorted, as if the engineer didnt care.

Try comparing the LP vs CD versions of Mahler 4 by Jascha Horenstein and the London Philharmonic.  The LP sounds muffled and distorted and the CD is beautifully open.  So was that a bad recording or a bad transfer?  Probably the latter but who knew until the CD was issued?

@mahler123 

Really excellent observation. Now it would really be interesting to look around and find a couple of different vinyl copies and see if it is possible that the one you have is a very, very late stamping and that early stampings were good. Or are there several versions of the same recording. So many possibilities could be fun to explore.

For those who like non-amplified, acoustic music, bluegrass is an option.  Alison Kraus and Union Station is a perfect example.  Their "Live!" album is particularly well done.  I will grant you that many male bluegrass singers have too much twang in their voices, but Alison's voice is beautiful IMO.