John:
Yes, I missed the obvious point in my first post that this thread won't likely pertain to most classical recordings. And don't get me started on the current state of mixing and mastering of most of the other genres of music....I've been wanting to write the "Mother of All Posts Volume V" on that one for quite awhile, as the "mixing to the lowest common denominator" has been a very, very big pet peeve of mine for a couple of years now and it's only getting worse.
Over the last six months or so, since wanting to start this thread, a large part of that desire has been to simply warn people about crappy recordings. I would approximate only 5% of my listening to be Claassical or Jazz, so unfortunately, I run into crappy recordings often.... and am occasionally surprised by an excellent recording.
If I truly had the time and energy, I would try to organize a National boycott of crappy recordings. When the lousy quality recordings stop selling, record companies might change (the recording quality of) their tune.
