To answer your "title" question, absolutely YES. One of the main reasons I have a music system is to learn and listen to new music, including older music that is new to me.
Has your audio system gotten you into new music?
Before I picked up my current system, consisting of B&W 805S speakers, I was never really into female vocalists that much, but as many here know, B&Ws just love female vocals. Nowadays, a huge portion of my music collection consists of female vocalists, one of my favorite bands being Metric. I also appreciate other types of music more that I was never really into as much, like jazz. I think having a high end system lets you appreciate more types of music. Some stuff I used to think was "ehh" before I had the system, I actually love now. At least this is the effect my system has.