Quality system, make poor recordings sound better?

" It would be kind of a foolish hobby to end up with an expensive system that makes the majority of your record collection sound bad."

I agree. If it can't get the most out of whatever you got, what's the point? Fortunately, it can. If it doesn't, then there is something else going on. The possibilities there are endless. Only a few ways to get things right, many ways to get things wrong.

Alot of studios use ATC scm50 monitors that cost over 20k . So all this talk about studios using inferior equipment is not true . The founder of Stereophile magazine stated the ATC were the closest thing to live sound he heard in his home.

Try listening between 2 and 4 AM, least electrical junk on line most places.

The true test of a good system is that you want to listen for hours on end and "recording quality" is not a deterrent but just part of the artistic presentation.

Also I don;t agree it can't be revealing and musical. It can. Just keep noise and distortion to a minimum. Then what is revealed is only what was intended. YMMV.

good point mapman . noise and distortion is a sound quality killer on any system