Artemus, I can understand your dilema. My speakers are very revealing and while I have sorted out upstream components, it is still frustrating to listen to poorly recorded CD's. The more revealing and transparent your system is, the more source material becomes a factor. Like most people here I do not subscribe to tone controls in the circuit -- the simplest, most direct pre-amp circuit is best IMO. I am able to deal with poor recordings by clicking in a little more triode and a little less pentode on my Baron amp; how much depends on the recording. It doesn't transform a poor recording into a good one, but it does make it easier to listen to good music that is recorded badly. I will say that I rarely do this. If adding tone controls makes things better to your ears, I say go for whatever sounds best to you.
To tone control or not to tone control
I recently stepped up to a Conrad Johnson PFR preamp to mate with my CJ MF-2200 amp (200 wpc). Was previously running an Adcom GTP-450 pre/tuner which had bass/treble controls which help to compensate for those recordings which are recorded poorly. Though the CJ PFR sounds really good on most of my cd's there are some of my favorite artists whose recordings are really pitiful. Is there a good tone control which I can use on the PFR to use for these poor recordings? Is there a way to connect both preamps to one system. I do have an older cdp that I could connect to the Adcom preamp for the poor cd's and use the main system for the good stuff. I have also thought of trying a subwoofer to help with filling in the bottom end since most of the poor recordings are R&B and Rock N'Roll and that is where they seem to be lacking the most. The rest of my system consists of a Sherwood Newcastle 980 cdp and Infinity RS 5000 speakers (12 yrs old) and next to be replaced. As always your help is appreciated