I have to admit to buying both great performances and excellent recordings. Rarely do the two coincide. I love the Suske Quartette's late Beethoven quartettes, but recorded in the 70's in East Germany... I also love Janos Starker's Bach cello suites, recorded on Mercury Living Presence (1960s?), but he played one for me in his hotel room in the 1980s so I have a soft spot for him. Also I like both Bernstein's Beethoven 9 and Claudio Abado's. There are better recordings of all of these, and probably I most recently purchased the DG Rattle Beethoven set, superbly recorded, but Abado's (using crossed figure 8 mics) is better to listen to despite the lack of LF (fig-8 mics have LF rolloff), a fantastic performance with the same band, and superb imaging.
Sometimes I listen to the wonderful recordings, but mostly I listen to the better performances. My mind can fill in the sound easier than the performance differences. I suspect that we are all different in that way!