The simple truth is a very good system is probably very revealing as well. That said a lousy recording will be lousy !! You can waste your time with room treatment and or the dials only to end up with lousy !! Play a noted well mastered Selection then without touching anything throw on some old Rolling Stones. Their not in the room with you their in that Sony Walkman lol. Pick and choose new and old it’s out there.., turn it up and smile when you find it.
Can a great system make a mediocre recording sound good?
I spend a lot of time searching for well produced recordings as they (of course) sound so good on my system (Hegel 160 + Linn Majik 140 speakers). I can't tolerate poor sounding recordings - regardless of the quality of the performance itself. I was at a high end audio store yesterday and the sales person took the position that a really high-end system can make even mediocre recordings sound good. Agree?