Quality system, make poor recordings sound better?

Maplegrovemusic,
My experience is the same as you described. As my system has evolved, poor or average sounding recordings have clearly improved (hearing/appreciating more of the music's expression/emotion). The better recordings just became more so.

Montytx,
A recurring theme with this type of topic is the detrimental effects of dynamic compression. This is often genre dependent, with popular and rock music suffering this more frequently. Jazz and classical recordings seem for the most part to avoid/ minimize dynamic compression nonsense. Most of my jazz CDs have a dynamic range averaging 25-30 db and some are 35-40 db with individual selections. It seems many pop and rock recordings are limited to 10-12 db range which is regrettable. I suspect that the good classical CDs are wide dynamic range recordings similar to the jazz genre. So it appears the recording engineers target certain markets by assuming what playback equipment the listeners will use, ipods, boombox, car and portable radios etc.
Charles,

+1 Atmasphere. This has certainly been the way things have changed for me as my system has improved. We all have different experiences.

Omsed,
Well said.

I share Syntax's view. Humans are attracted to music and respond in an emotional way. If the components can't convey the soul and emotion of music what good are they?