Quality system, make poor recordings sound better?

I use bad recordings as a yeardstick to tell me how I am doing. IME, a system can 'editorialize' and can often react poorly to poor recordings, and also recordings with lots of energy.

An example from the old days was Village Music of Bulgaria on Nonesuch LP. In the old days my pickup had real problems with the intense vocal expressions on the LP and it sounded terrible. As things have improved, I have found this LP to be astonishing- dimensional and really well recorded.

From this and other examples I don't buy the idea that bad recordings sound worse as your system improves. A good system will take the bad recording in stride and will present what is good about it as well as what is bad without comments of its own. The smoother your system is (IOW: the less higher-ordered harmonic distortion it has) the easier this will go for you.

Phd, FWIW, I have horns too and no worries on the top end. However, I can't listen to passive volume controls in my system- they come off too bright and no bass relative to my preamp.

Also, generally speaking horn speakers don't play well with transistors; the reason being that horns are often highly reactive and present a lot of back EMF to the amplifier. If the amplifier employs negative feedback, unless the designer really did his homework to prevent radio frequencies from entering the amp through the feedback network, that and the back EMF will really cause the amp to be shrill.

This is one reason you find most horn installations using tubes.

A great recording with have dimension (width and depth) and won't be harsh. There will be detail and subtlety. There will be dynamic contrasts too. The bass won't be rolled off, nor will it be too boomy.

In a way, its the kind of thing that when you hear it, you will know.