Quality system, make poor recordings sound better?

With respect to your first question, to me it depends on what you mean by "moving up the audio chain". If you're moving up to more and more "revealing" components, or perhaps to wires that might emphasize certain parts of the frequency spectrum, particularly the higher frequencies, then yes, what you're describing can happen. Another upgrade path, though, that I now (after having gone the other way) try to follow is to make sure that you can listen to and enjoy most of your music collection with the new components, and I believe that this can be done while still maintaining high sound quality and even improving it. There are components out there that can let you listen to and enjoy lower-resolution sources like internet radio while still letting great recordings shine. I think this is what people are thinking of when they refer to "musical" components.

With respect to your second observation, there are a lot of factors that can cause this, both related to your system (power not quite up to optimum levels, wear of tubes, etc.) and related to you and your mood. With respect to the former, a really good power conditioner or regenerator, or listening to your system late at night when demands on the power grid are lower, can lessen those differences attributable to "dirty" power coming into your home. But I find that my mood and concentration level when listening vary a lot, and that can definitely affect the way I respond to the same recordings.

I have found just the opposite . The more my system gets dialed in the better all recordings are . I listen strictly to digital . Right now 90% of songs sound fantastic . Last winter i would skip through my playlist looking for the best recordings , A slave to an improperly amplified set of speakers. Proper amps for my speakers and a few other changes made a night and day difference . Something in your system is not jiving , could be room , speaker placement , mismatch of components ,ect... It is not the recordings that are poor . Obviouosly some are better than others . But no recording done for a major record label should sound terrible ,regardless of format .

Maplegrovemusic,
My experience is the same as you described. As my system has evolved, poor or average sounding recordings have clearly improved (hearing/appreciating more of the music's expression/emotion). The better recordings just became more so.

Some systems I have found mask poor quality recordings to the point they would be tolerable. However, in my experience, I have found that better quality equipment really show how poor the recording (not the music) really is. As I have upgraded, I have noticed that some CD's are just terrible to the extent that I can't listen to them anymore. However, I have also found that better quality (recording wise) cd's are absolutely wonderful sounding. You have to remember that back in the day, the cd recording equipment was touted as "perfect sound" but was really lacking. It is funny when I read so much about the tube vs solid state argument, when many times, the actual recording equipment is solid state based and multiple ICs at that with poor quality components. So yes, I have found in my experience the same as the OP. Love the music, but sometimes the recording quality really sucks and on better quality equipment, one can really hear this.

enjoy

With respect to the first question, my experience mirrors that of the OP, and John (Jmcgrogan2), and Minorl. I have a not inconsiderable number of poor recordings that I would prefer to listen to via YouTube on my $90 computer speakers rather than on my main system. But as my system has evolved, the great recordings continue to sound ever more realistic and more pleasing.

Regarding the second question, John and Russ (Rcprince) make excellent points. In my own case, though, I have not noticed a great deal of sonic variation from day to day or time to time. Perhaps it is not entirely coincidental that there is no industry and very little commercial development in my area, and presumably the quality of my AC is therefore relatively good and relatively constant.

Regards,
-- Al