Alas, garbage in - garbage out applies to hifi as well.
At some point, listeners need to decide whether they want to be audiophiles or music lovers. Although many recordings can appeal to both, all too often there is great music poorly recorded/engineered/mixed/processed (etc) as well as crappy music butifully R/E/M/P. Think of it as two intersecting bell curves.
As a general rule, I want my playback equipment to accurately reproduce what's on the recording. Unfortunately, this will sometimes mean that the poor quality of the recording will detract from listening enjoyment. But I also want my equipment to be musical without being (too) euphonic. Again, there is a bit of a balancing act between "detail" and "musicality" although both are certainly possible. (And, indeed, the problem with many bad recordings can be somewhat ameliorated with tone controls if the issue is over-brightness. Another major factor includes room acoustics and treatments.) In my experience metal drivers and ribbons tend to provide greater high end detail and, occasionally, brightness that users may sometimes want to attenuate.
Let's set aside for a moment the issue of incompetent music processing.
A number of great classical works are, unfortunately, not the best recordings. For example, two of my favourites are both Furtwangler - his classic 1942 Beethoven's 9th, as well as a Brahms 4 from the same time period. For me, these are two of the most emotionally charged symphonic works ever recorded. They are both live, with audience noise, bad concert hall acoustics, not very good recording equipment, and all of the accompanying hiss, clutter, congestion and other noise you would ever want to not have on your favourite recording. My approach is:
1. to position my speakers, listening position, etc. to get the best imaging, soundstage, etc. using an excellent recording, then
2. I tune the room with treatments, etc. (which may even include some driver attenuation) to make the best of the bad recordings I have.
This seems to work pretty well, though you can't make a silk purse from a sows ear.
