It's hard for us to asume anything about the recordings I for example does not have the experience of live recording as some posters here actually have , recordings are not perfect they are often mixed and balanced on imperfect eqipment too.
And its also some fallacies built in to our assumptions ......
Hifi should sound good ? why if the recording is s**t propper hifi presents its like that , learn to live with the recordings all sounds different.
Your really have arrived when recordings do sound vastly different on your kit . Its when it sound the same you have problem it could be the same good sound or the same bad sound .
Hifi does not make anything "sound better" its sounds less good , they are small degradation's in every step not improvement's ,but your are still listening to most of the signal even in a rather pedestrian system.
Also weigth whats important .
Electronics is basically solved these days , just look out for duds and asses on build quality and capacity to drive speakers and headphones .
Recording,Room,Speakers ? the order can flip if the speakers are horrible ?
Most underestimated factors . Room EQ and EQ in general .
The insane idea if not having any EQ or tone controls on audiophile equipment . even if your system where perfect in the perfect room you still need them for the recordings .
That's a nice trap built by the high end industry , the listeners will never be happy because frankly many recordings do need some active adjustments by the user, but instead you run around trying to fix it by buing a new DAC off all things
"they" got you .