As system improves, do bad recordings sound worse?

Truly bad pop recordings of the late 1990s are digital horrors, many other recordings overused analog "improvements" such as reverb and sound phony, and early classical recordings lack the dynamics of real music. I think your question depends largely on what you listen to. Generally, I find that improvements in my system raise the level of virtually every records with the exception of those I listed above. I am not saying, of course, that now poorly recorded material rivals well recorded music.

hi byron:

the issue is what is meant by "improves" and what is considered a "good" system.

i believe that audio is a subjective hobby so what constitutes "improvement" is a matter of personal taste.

if improvement=greater resolution , while maintaining a balanced frequency response, i maintain that recordings which are engineered to have a peak in say the range, 1000 -3000 hz, will sound more fatiguing.

i did raise this question as almarg has indicated but i was a bit vague about what constitutes a poor recording.

i am trying to be more specific by saying recordings having frequency response errors will, in a better system, as i have implied be exposed to a greater extent than in another system with certain colorations.

"As system improves, do bad recordings sound worse?"

In my experience, most definitely yes.

As system improves, do bad recordings sound worse?

In my experience, yes.

Depends on what you compare to.

They may be more disappointing and seemingly worse in comparison to good recordings now but should still sound better than they did originally.