So how can a great system solve less than great recordings

@mapman

Perhaps those who have heard well made digitally remastered versions of those otherwise obtuse early mono releases on phono. 😉

the point being of course that those early mono recordings were never obtuse; they simply required the proper tools to access them. and agree that digital transfers from the tapes is one of those tools.

while those digital transfers (which i listen to too) don’t get close to a proper mono cartridge reading (or the tape itself), they are still an example of the idea of a great system helping to access music thought to be less than great.

Set up a mono turntable using a true mono cartridge such as a Miyajima Zero. You may be quite surprised that mono can surpass stereo LP's.

Of course many may be drinking adult style drinks, and i am not inclined so maybe therein lies a consideration.

so some and probably many may be listening in an altered state.  
so is this being true to the audiophile lifestyle,are there rules?

@jumia,

Poorer older quality cooms from a qobuz stream.  
Is older stuff handled well by qobuz?

I'm not a streamer, so can't help on this.

That's an entirely different subject (new thread?), in terms of streaming services, high-res vs. xxx, and the real issue you're looking for... finding and identifying good digital source material. Different mastering, alternate recordings, and which content providers have more variety and higher-quality material. Must be lots of info on this forum, including some recent threads I believe.

I agree with jbirdman333. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, even with very expensive equipment. Just this past Saturday, when I played a Rolling Stones compilation - hits from 1964 - 1970 - I thought "Sympathy For the Devil", one of my favorites, sounded awful. I could hardly hear Jagger's lyrics over the instruments. So I got a "remastered" CD of the single album, Beggars Banquet, overnight from Amazon. It sounded much better - I could hear Jagger's lyrics more clearly than on the compilation CD.  It just showed me that it basically boils down to the quality of the  recorded source material, no matter how good the equipment is downstream.  I have now ordered several other remastered Rolling Stones CD's to see (hear) whether the single albums outranked the same cuts on the poorly recorded compilation album.