Speakers and system for compressed recordings?

"Crines of the Century" compressed? My Speakers Corner LP sounds amazing. I do understand your pain with compression but I find that some recent rock music is compressed and a fair amount of late 70's to 80's stuff is really hard to listen to. Some Kansas and Journey fore example is really hard to listen to even though I love the music.

Of what I listen to Dead Can Dance - Spleen and Ideal, Mahavishnu Orchestra - Birds of Fire and even more Yngwie Malmsteen with Japanese Orchestra sound really bad on everything. The last one is digital recording, I just can't tolerate it on my stereo and believe it or not prefer to listen to it on computer through monitor's! built-in piece of junk plastic kind of speakers or through headphones.
Other than that eveything is listenable.

It could be a coincidence, but nearly everybody who is complaining about the sound of the recordings hasn't listed their system here on Audiogon. Could it be that those who have listed know something about putting together satisfying systems that the unlisted don't? Just harmless speculation.

The sonic variability of "classic" rock is well documented, but compared to any pop/rock recording of the past 5 years the earlier recordings possess a good dynamic range and sound only mildly compressed.

Perhaps, a dynamic range expander might work for you? DBX, RG and Rane are some that have made them.
http://www.rane.com/g4.html

Crime of the century suffers from compression especially in the drum kit. It happened in the studios. I have the uhqr, mfsl regular half speed, a&m Canadian half speed, and the gold mfsl c.d. four audiophile versions. All show the same studio compression. It is used to control or restrict dynamics and distortion. And to give the listening public what they want: a uniform sounding product. Vocals forward not drums. Hate it or love it compression is a fact in most studio recordings. You just don't notice it when it is done right. Morph the cat by Donald fagan is very controlled and compressed. I still love the record and try to tune out the compression.