yes I totally agree garbage in garbage out, I have a $60,000 system which includes a Sim audio p8, Sim audio w8, esoteric P10 transport, Wyred4sound 10th anniversary dac, monarchy audio up sampler, and for the speakers monitor audio platinum 200 Gen 2, a friend of mine brought over some of his CDs that were not so well recorded and boy could you tell the difference from other CDs that were well recorded it wasn't even close.
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?