OP, good topic. To restate your points:
1. High fidelity systems currently don't make up for problems in the source material. Rather, HiFi systems can emphasize problems in production and mastering.
2. Remastering has not solved all the problems in the original production and mastering.
I wonder if AI upscaling/upsampling in audio is the next step in remastering. I believe that we could begin to see an AI upscaler/upsampler improve poor recordings in ways that past remastering efforts hasn't. Also, I believe that an AI upscaler/upsampler could fit into an existing HiFi system.
The strides in AI upscaling in the video space could show us the possibilities in the audio space. We've had video upscalers in TV's and receivers for a while, and older versions of upscaling have been impressive for past TV resolution standards. But with the release of 4k TVs (and soon 8k TVs), upscalers haven't kept up. Most receiver manufacturers seem to have 4k upscaling limited to taking 1080i up to 4k. Anything lower than 1080i is SOL. Many TVs today don't even have upscaling anymore. And the quality among the 4k upscalers in receivers and TV is all over the place.
The best 4k upscaler available right now is from Nvidia, in their Shield TV streamer. It combines traditional upscaling tech with their own AI tech. Nvidia, which was a computer graphics card company, found itself on the right side of history when graphics cards became the best tools for AI research. And their Shield TV streamer arguably started as a streaming box to allow Nvidia graphics card owners to stream their games across their home networks, from the computer in the office to their TV. At the intersection of AI and consumer streamers, Nvidia is the clear leader in home video upscaling. Here's an example of what Nvidia upscaling can do. Make sure to view it on a high res screen:
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/shield/sliders/ai-upscaling/I know that the HiFi space has some companies that dabble in upsampling. My understanding is that the quality varies widely and that current upsampling offers another audio flavor rather than something so convincing that we leave the upsampling button toggled on.
But some Nvidia level upsampling could arrive in the HiFi space, one day. The market for high fidelity audio lags behind the market for home cinema, and, as a result, the biggest companies have largely left the HiFi market underserved. Also, due to the software requirements for upsampling, the more boutique a company, the less likely that company is to maintain it's own software and make advancements in audio upsampling. (NAD and Roon strike me and the best pieces of software in HiFi right now.) Here are my takes on where impressive upsampling may one day come from:
1. The home theater space expands its interest into quality audio. (Nah... who am I kidding.)
2. FPGA-based DACs provide the inroad to opensource software, engaging a community of software hobbyists in audio. (Wouldn't it be great if PS Audio or Chord opened up their software to their communities? I should make an effort to pitch this idea to these companies. As an analog, the video game Skyrim was one of the biggest video games of the last decade. Part of the reason for
Skyrim's success was because it's smaller developer, Bethesda, opened up its code to the gaming community for modding. That approach turned out to be wildly successful, and allowed
Bethesda to compete with the bigger developers like EA and Ubisoft.)
3. The big streaming platforms (in both video and audio) perform the upsampling to their streams. I see this as the endgame. But just like Apple Music and Spotify waited until now to release a CD quality tier, these big players likely won't provide upsampling until they are forced to, or until they can easily check that marketing box.
