Speakers for bad rock recordings

In addition to Jaybo's response , I would echo the tube suggestion , as many as you can do ie. amp , preamp and CDP .

A second addition would be a speaker change to something with a soft dome tweeter and a big bass driver . Also , two 7in. drivers are not as good as a single 10in. driver .

Of course the driver size will depend on the size of your room . And the box will be wider than the new designs of today that use the multiple smaller driver array for better looks . This is the reason that the older speakers , suggested above , look like kegerators !

These changes have made many of my CD's go from the 'For Sale' stack back into the 'Listening' stack !

Good luck .

Yes , you do not want to leave a tubed device on all of the time . It will wear out the tubes prematurally .
Why do you 'tend' to do that ? Memory ?

Another alternative would be to try some non-tubed DAC's . You might find one that would allow you to tailer/color the output to your desires . Sort of like the tubes would do .

Good luck .

I think that it depends on what is making it a "bad recording" .

If it is recorded hot , tizzy on the top end with a lot of sssssssss's and zzzzzz's , then my suggestions above will help .

If the recording is compressed , soundslike it is coming from the other room with no highs or lows , then nothing will help .

And simply going to a remastered version of a bad recording is not always the answer either . I have found some to be just as bad as the original .

Good luck.