Hi, Peter. Both this and the Walkiing on the Moon track seem to be pretty well-engineered recordings. In fact, I searched for the Walking on the Moon CD this morning but it seems out of print except for a used one on eBay for $179. It's not quite that nice.
Anyway, there were 2 rather significant aspects regarding your comments both here and in your Walking on the Moon post that it seems you and perhaps a few others overlooked.
1. Though it seems apparent that both recordings are on the superior side of the egineering fence it also seems clear both playback systems are not all that resolving/musical. For the simple reason the first recording clearly sounds like it's being played back in a room about the size of a large walk-in closet and the second recording clearly sounds like it's being played back in a room the size of a large kitchen or at most maybe a 2 car garage tops. IOW, there's very little expansiveness in either's playback presentation because the playback systems' resolution is such that much of the ambient info embedded in the recording is inaudible at the speaker. As a result we're hearing the listening room itself which is never a good sign. Along with that there is muffled bass, drums, etc and clearly the 2nd system with the Audio Tekne integrated seems to show more promise than the first system.
It's really an audible battle between the listening room's acoustics and the live performance's volumes of ambient info embedded in the recording where the playback system's noise floor level determines the winner and loser. But it's never a good sign when the listening room wins because that's when the performance becomes unbelievable. To the best of my knowledge, one should never ever hear my listening room's acoustics with any of my in-room recordings or for that matter perhaps any recording in my listening room. If I thought that was the case, I wouldn't bother sharing my in-room recordings because that level of playback is a dime a dozen. Even those like INXS, Donovan, The Guess Who, or The Edgar Winter Group and numerous others which seem to be recorded in much smaller recording studios, one should still only hear the small recording venue's ambient info and not my much smaller listening room's acoustic anomalies.
To compare and contrast this I'd like to suggest listening to those two recordings you really like more closely and try to imagine the size of the room in which you're listening based on the reverberation times, etc. Then listen to Teen Town by Weather Report I posted above for which I suspect that performance took place in a recording hall maybe about half the size of a full-basketball court. Or perhaps listen to this drum solo below that I'd guess took place in a recording hall maybe 1/3rd the size of a full basketball court. But I'm guessing. In either of my videos, I hear a rather large, expansive, lively, and airy presentation exactly like I would hope to hear from of a larger recording hall and I can assure you my somewhat smallish listening room ain't none of those things. But of course I'm biased.
Regardless, when a playback system lacks resolution (all do to one great extent or another), it's an across-the-board thing as all sonic characteristics suffer equally but some suffering characteristics seem more easily apparent than others. Hearing the listening room's acoustics is most always a dead giveaway of a playback system's lack of resolution because much of the volumes of ambient info of the live performance is captured / embedded into even some of the most inferior recordings. The smaller the room sounds the less the recording hall's ambient info is remaining audible from the recording at the speaker. This most always implies a much raised noise floor and hence a less resolving the playback system.
IMO, the ambient info is the absolute lowest of all low-level detail and if that is true then that is the first thing that starts becoming inaudible by the time the signal reaches the speaker. Such that we're now seemly hearing only or mostly just the listening room. I like to think in my case, I've so dramatically lowered my playback system's noise floor such that the live performance's volumes of ambient info embedded in most every recording (remember it's the lowest of all low-level detail) completely? overshadows my listening room's acoustics every time. In fact, that's one reason why I share my in-room recordings.
2. I think I'll save the other even more signficant aspect for another time as I suspect this one aspect I mentioned above is enough potential controversy for the time being.