Most resolving, transparent amps.

Tvad, poor sounding CDs are few and far between in my experience. It is nothing to sweat about. What I love is when listeners come in and say, "Let's see what this really bad disc sounds like on this system. When it sounds more horrible than they imagined they blame it on the system, instead of finally tossing the crummy thing.

Do great recordings sound better on systems that make bad CDs really terrible, or those on which they to sound decent? I ezpect the answer leads to two types of systems.

Tvad, FWIW, "The ultimate resolving maching" means different things to different folks. All depends on what your goal actually is, I think.

For in my home, example using a Wadia direct into my old SF monos into my Silverlines and playing a Shirly Horn recording "Here's To Life" I got an absolutely focused and hugh sound stage. I could hear every room resonance in the recording. I'm sure some folks would have considered this high frequency reproduction and soundstaging outstanding. Personally I just found it totally an unrealistic reproduction of information on the disc which should have remained in the subliminal noise field. Same recording, same speakers, thru a pre-amp and I lost a bit of the "highs" but now the recording was warm and very engaging. Now that, for me anyway, is the 'ultimate'. Something that resembles music.

I'm not so sure I would feel that way if I were focused on listening to recordings of train whistles! :-)

To answer your question, Bubul57, absolutely great recordings sound better on highly resolving systems.

Muralman1, I agree. It is why I have a "transparent" setup, and a "musicality" setup. The easiest wat to do that I think is neutrality throughout, and "voicing" with a preamp.