My experience is that the better my system gets, the easier it is to enjoy the music and ignore the quality of the recording. My system would be classified, by most, as being "clinical". Passive attenuator(no preamp), Bryston DAC, class D amps, modded SB3, Toshiba universal disc player. The more the equipment 'gets out of the way' the more the intentions, intonation, and emotion of the performers reveals itself. All recordings are flawed in some way or another. Whether its a big band recording from the 1930s or something recorded last week, reproduction in ones living room can only hope to convey the illusion that widow in time has been opened providing the performance the way the artist intended. If you're hearing the equipment rather than the music, time to get better equipment.
