[Russell Dawkins]

Recordings vary enormously in their sounds as a result of differing micing and mixing choices, not to speaker of the room acoustic and the sound the musicians themselves produce.
This is an example of what I consider an excellent mix (and performance) in the smooth jazz idiom. Notice the integration between the bass and kick drum, the general tonality of everything—piano, voice, trombone, guitar—and the relative lack of compression on everything, including the drums as evidenced by the final kick at 5:03.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMTMp8EM1VI

[witchdoctor]

While I agree about the quality of mixes I think youtube is limited no matter the mix.
I am going to try out a new device called AfterMaster Pro to see if it helps on bad mixes. I hate it when listening to Pandora or some other steaming service and you love the song or movie but it is just really compressed, maybe because it is too old, whatever. Please scroll down the page and listen to the demo tracks and let me know what you think. For less than $200 I think I'll give it a shot:

http://aftermasterpro.com/