Comment by Lio

> the closer it is to what the artist intended, and to how it would sound if the artist was playing right in front of you

This doesn't really bear any relationship to what happens in recording studios.

Almost no "recordings" are a recreation of a single live event. Producers choose microphones, consoles, compressors, limiters, equalisers and FX because of the way they colour sound.

It's a completely artistic set of choices.

When someone like Dave Grohl chooses a studio with a Neve and a 2" multitrack he's not doing it because he wants more fidelity. Again, recording to a DAW would not necessarily improve the end product.

You mention over compression of MP3s, well people have also used bit crushing as an effect for a long time too.