A ’great system’ should not be additive, sound wise, to a recording. What it does do right is not become additive. A bright/harsh CD for instance, a very common thing, can sound better on a well executed system because with a poor system you are just adding more brightness/hash etc. FWIW, with some very careful planning you can get a ’great system’ going without spending ’great’ sums of money. FWIW.
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?