Can a great system make a mediocre recording sound good?

My current house of stereo system makes every record sound better. Whether they are well or poorly engineered/mastered. Across the board, all sound better than they did with my older systems in various rooms. I must have done something right this time with both the system and its acoustic setting. But, however a poorly recorded album's sound improves, it still basically sucks 😜

I’ve found the best cure for a bad recording of an otherwise interesting performance, is good beer.  😎

I find it to be opposite. My really good system makes bad recordings almost unlistenable, It will make average recordings some better some average. All worth it for what it does to good recordings that draw me in to my happy place where nothing matters but the music my ears are deciding. One thing to keep in mind that producers have to engineer a recording for all medium. This means compromises. A lot of people are critical of remasters but if you get a recording that is redone to account for a high end system I am all for it. It is not going against the artists original output but it is taking the compromise in the other direction.

@bigtwins

100% I have a ton of music mostly metal that I enjoy in car and find unlistenable on reference system. These old recordings were engineered to be broadcast over an analog radio signal. Not digitized and run through a $2000 dac and 10 k speakers.

Step by step my system gets better.  And the poorer records come along with the system, most of the time. When I hear music that I have heard many times in the car or radio then I hear it on my system it is always a pleasant surprise. 

Recordings are rarely left alone i.e. remastering, remixing and even rerecording. Many recordings are muffled, muddy, over-miked, guitar one channel, guitar player on the other or too much effects or gimmicks.  Few times, this really can be all you concentrate on while listening. 

Another problem I run into since streaming:  the volume of the recordings.  This can mean a difference of 9 am to 12pm on the dial.  This happens after remastering or new recordings are recorded that way out of the gate. 

One should not sit there and be obsessed with recordings.  Enjoy.  Now, if you know a recording is well done and you want to evaluate, pick these out, otherwise just play what you like or let you or your streaming service pick out songs.