Speakers that reveal bad recordings? Not for me.

The recording is what it is. A bad recording is not the speaker's fault. That's what signal processors like dynamic range expanders tone controls, and equalizers are for, to make a lesser recording sound better.

If you play a badly recorded record on a good system it will sound like a badly recorded record. A good system does not make a bad record sound better. In my former days as an audio dealer I was often ask for systems that would make everything sound good. I always told them that there was no such thing. This is not to say that you should have a system that has so much top energy that it makes most recordings unlistenable. I have favored British speakers because I have found that while they have very extended top ends they lack the exaggeration that some other speakers have. As my system has improved through the years I have discovered that some records that I was unimpressed with are much better than I thought and other ones that I liked are now intolerable. But in the main most of them are still listenable. But if a recording is truly bad a good system will reveal it. The other night I took out an E. Power Biggs LP of organ and brass featuring The Prince of Denmark's March, which I liked so much that I used it at my wedding. It was horrible, no organ could be heard and the brass sound was indescribable. Looking at the record I realized that it was a back up copy that I had purchased without realizing that Columbia had cheapened their records and re-equalized them . If anyone out there thinks they have a system that will make this record [ 2 record set actually] sound good they can have it for the cost of postage. It has the original art work but records you can flex like cheap dynagroove. I hope I still have my original copy among my 3000 odd LPs.

I should have included the old saying, " The wider you open the window the more dirt flies in." There is no way good equipment can improve the sound of a bad record. Good equipment reveals more of what is on the record. Garbage in, garbage out. I have the LPs of the original, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" which were very good. I bought it on CD. It was clanky, compressed, and generally bad. I never listened to it. It was remastered a few years ago and now is a close approximation of the LPs. If the thesis is that a good system makes everything sound better why do I hear a difference?

"A well designed loudspeaker will sound good even if musics poorly recorded."

Good is the enemy of great.

 
If a system does not reveal bad recordings for what they are, could there be less chance it will release the magic of really well made ones?

There is no right answer, but the one that works best for you. If we assume the recording is what it is, and what you hear from it is a product of your stereo, then do you get more satisfaction from adding distortion or removing it?

I'm still holding out for the view that truth and beauty don't have to be mutually exclusive. Alas, cost introduces compromise - at least for some of us.
 
Tim