On a different note, share the artists you own that DON'T sound good

@howardlee "Most of us are listening for two things: the performance, and the sonics".

Well said!

Couldn't have said it better myself.

I don't think certain artists sound bad. Or if they do, its a smaller list than you have. Bad sound for me is often the early cd's or digital recordings. I've noticed that as my system has gotten better, the list of bad sounding recordings has gotten smaller and smaller. Some that I couldn't listen to at one time are now in a normal rotation. AAMOF I have been impresed at how good some of the classic rock sounds. That said, Layla has always been on the bad sounding albums.Some Early Aerosmith may be there too, IE Toys in the Attic. Most of the others you list sound pretty good on my system. But then I play mostly vinyl which is another can of worms I didn't mean to open

To those who don't like The Nightfly recording (and I am not one, I like it a lot) I'm curious how many of you have listened the live Nightfly album? The SQ is quite good and it's a more recent digital recording so maybe less of the glare you're experiencing. I'm not normally into live recordings but there are a few I like and that's definitely one of them. It's also available in Hi-Res.

U2…. Most of their earlier stuff is poorly recorded.. if anyone knows of some quality recordings, please let me know. Thank you

The wild cards in all of this are the pressing plant and mastering.  The sonics can vary wildly even with first pressings.  Not all remasters are bad.  @rtrlover The impex remaster of Souveniers is outstanding.  In general, though, I think a lot of the Stone's recordings sound muddy.