poorly mixed or recorded CDs has become a huge issue for me. i had a nice Denon surround amp. most CDs sounded ok through it. i guess it just smoothed everything out and wasnt very resolving. when i changed to EAD/parasound, i found over half my CDs were barely listenable. people describe it as "fatigue" from the sound, and thats exactly what happened to me. those overly compressed disks just grate at you. some of the worst even have fairly high levels of back ground hiss, like listening to a dirty record. the difference can be blatantly obvious with some compilation CDs. some good recording scattered amongst the bad. i am trying to listen to more jazz, small ensemble and classical music because i find much of this has been recorded by an engineer who gave a s###. the punk, ska and classic rock i prefer just isnt enjoyable on good equipment 
I have to disagree with you slightly. I have what I would consider pretty good equipment, and I listen to a wide variety of music. It all sounds enjoyable, just to different extents.
I think some Hifi companies have a tendency to tip their equipment up in order to accentuate the high frequencies. On well recorded albums if gives the sensation of more air and more transparency. I went through this.
"Air" does not exist in real life. If you voice your system to try and remain as close in tonality and timbre as real life, you'll find most recordings are actually listenable. Obviously better recorded material will sound better then material that is not so well recorded.
When you have eclectic choices in music, this becomes a must.
Not to say that modern recordings are not bad, but you can play them on a well matched Hifi rig without running screaming from the room, or feeling any discomfort.
I came to the conclusion that the music should be the more important thing, and it took me a while to find even the remotely right recipe. Getting there slowly.
