Can a great system make a mediocre recording sound good?

The fact that good recording sound way better does not contradict the fact that the less wellrecording begins to be interesting by the way you detect new acoustical cues... it is no more only a mess...

No room system can make bad good...

But a good room /system will make bad interesting no more a mess...

I listened for example now with more pleasure to the very bad recording of Scriabin opus by Michael Ponti a musical marvel in horrible recorded way, but now it is more interesting even if it stay bad recording ...You guess more about the subtle touch and Italian virtuosity of the pianist... you read more between the acoustical cues and line so to speak...

Same phenomenon with the bad recorded Sofronitsky...

I've found the opposite - the better the system, the more it reveals how bad/mediocre the source was.... Good sounding sources sound even better, though.... 

Then you lack something in your acoustic tuning or system tuning...

A balanced room /system must be neutral in a way which will make it able to reveal for the better all there is to be revealed acoustically...

I perfectly distinguish between bad and good recording , but i enjoy listening them all... Sound is no more an obstacle anyway for the music...

I go for systems that do their best to tell the truth but don't have a distorted hissy fit when a recordinging or pressing ain't perfect. True, nothing can help some of the grindingly bad 1960's 45rpm singles I own. But if the system has the wherewithal to find what is best within the groove/digital stream et.al., I'll forgive the recording's transgressions.

The most important part of your system is the source for Everything starts there good or bad ,the signal once lost cannot be made up down stream,

I personally like Multibit,or R2R dacs  they sound very natural ,vacuum tube Dac also ,good design is what counts most.

digital cables the  Ethernet hub ,as well as Ethernet cables and usb cables can make a Huge difference . I am part of a multi state audio club and have been shocked to find out my AQ Diamond 💎 usb ,and Wireworld platinum 8 are detailed but flat compared to imo Final touch audio Callisto cable best under $1k in naturalness , I own this but moved up to their new reference the Sinope which truly is like Analog for digital cable and I heard too Shunyata , as well as Synergistic research ,those cables are more money and better in a area or two realism i willtake over ultimate detail by a few % points , Ethernet cables very important as well, I have both AQ Diamond 💎 as well as FTA Ethernet cables ,the uptone audio is a excellent Ethernet hub for under $1k ,the synergistic research hub is the best I have heard at $2k it is worth it ,I don’t own it Yet but planning on it. spending $3500 for a few digital cables is a lot of $$ to me but we’ll worth the expense .

we took 2 dacs rom Denafrips ,the dac at 1/2 the price was better sounding with these top cables the better dac had a Wireworld platinum 8 which is pretty respectable ,just to make a point on digital cables. 

I'll go out on a limb and say I prefer some reconding on a much lesser system.  A lot of Led Zep comes to mind.  I find my very good system tends to highlight just how poor a lot of these recording were.  I save them for my car.