Is a highly discerning system enjoyable?

I was assuming everyone had imaging down.

Balance, missing in a lot of newer equipment, is a wonderful feature for occasional errant tracks that benefit a lot by a small adjustment. Remote balance is wonderful for when needed, so easy to hear the results of a small tweak.

On the other hand, some recordings are not salvageable on high resolution systems. 

Can't we argue though that the high resolution system in some cases IS what makes a recording sound a lot worse?

Like others have commented, I think you can have highly discerning without engaging, in which case some recordings may be unpleasant. I have found that some equipment plays all the notes well, but the music not so much. On the other hand, some recordings are not salvageable on high resolution systems. 

When it comes to resolution the lousier the better. I don't need to be forced into a this or that personal discussion about what I hear every time I play a song. You need to learn to dumb it down when you involve yourself in trivial pastimes especially when you are trying to convince yourself  that you do this for enjoyment, unless you don't.

Which system? There are probably many highly discerning systems that you would not like more than your current one.

You go @mapman 

HD tv is also overrated.  Blurry gets a bad rap. 

I feel lucky that no matter how bad the recording, my main system seems to reproduce it in a musical and involving manner. Having a second tonearm helps. If all else fails, I move to the second, less incisive, but equally musical rig in the same space.

What you need is a system that can separate the instruments, but still give you emotional enjoyment, that way you have all the details without the fatigue.

yes generally, if the system is well conceived and executed

I think that there's a place for a receiver and sound processing to make poor recordings more enjoyable.  Whenever I've made a change that I felt was a significant change/upgrade I've found that my favorite albums and songs tend to shift a bit.  There's also an aspect of simply becoming more annoyed with poor recordings as a more critical ear is developed from listening to systems with a high SQ.

When I got my Denafrips Ares II DAC a pleasant surprise was that several of my favorite albums that are not great recordings became enjoyable again.  I guess it would be fair to describe the DAC as being "musical" in my system.

It depends.  You can have a system that lets you hear every detail on a recording and also engages you emotionally, or you can have a system that gets all the detail but none of the emotion.

I have a pair of speaker cables that I can hook up with no other changes to my system that somehow manage to filter all the music out of my music.

I had JSE Model 2's, they measured and sounded the most accurate of any I owned. Whoopie! I drove them with McIntosh SS, 300 wpc. McIntosh SS Preamp.

After a few years, I missed my vintage speakers, extremely efficient, driven by vintage McIntosh tube preamp and more modern Cayin tube amp. They have 2 level controls each (balance mid horn to 15" woofer, balance tweeter to that result, I balance them with SPL and Test Tone CD. 

Gotta say, I prefer the vintage horns to the very accurate JSE's. My friend has those JSE's, updated them, he loves them, yet when he listens here, he finds these very involving. Involving has been my criteria once I clearly understood that factor so many years ago.