greater resolution as an end in itself ??

I can't stand it when I go to a live concert and there is just too darn much resolution there!

Seriously, I've never considered resolution to be a problem. The more the merrier! Distortion and certain tonal imbalances bother me more but I do not have as many issues these days as in the past. I've learned to take various recordings for what they are, for better or for worse. Just please, no audible distortions!

Mapman - Tonal imbalances bother me too. It is very tiring to climb the stage and adjust their amps at every concert.

I have never run into the problem as asked. I would say some electronics, etc. have greater resolution, but a few of them also sound like crap.. and a few of them sound really good. So I have to say it is not a compromise in my mind.
That is: higher resolution is not usually connected to having to endure bad recordings sounding even more like crap than before. (but then I can listen to a poor recording of a great performance and be happy. Unlike some who cannot stand to do so.)
(Plus, I am only in the mid-Fi camp.. having middle of the road equipment. If I had $200,000. in stuff wired up.. I might be in a different position to argue one way or another.)
As it now is for me, I can find equipment that gives me better resolution without problems of bad recordings sounding worse.

Analogously, ask yourself: can an HD video have too much resolution? Not if your goal is to be able to see everything as clearly as possible. then again, some of the things you see may be dog ugly or you may not find attractive or perhaps the HD equipment is of inferior quality and introduces noise or distortion that limit the results at resolution X. That is the equipments fault, not the fault of higher resolution source.

Audio is pretty much the same way.

it is my hypothesis that greater resolution, while possibly "improving" the sound of well-recorded cds, makes poor recordings sound worse. thus, is greater resolution a boon or a bane?

That was my initial expectation during the years when my system was evolving from low fi to mid fi to somewhere in the middle of the high end part of the spectrum. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that was not what happened.

What I found, at least with the classical recordings that comprise most of my listening, is that just about any recording manages to get at least a few things mostly right, and as my system improved and the things that were right about the recordings were reproduced with greater realism, my attention would be drawn by that realism to what was right about the recordings, and not what was wrong.

That said, though, I do find that a disproportionately high share of my listening is to recordings that are on audiophile labels or are otherwise high quality. And as Elizabeth said, if I had a $200K system it might be a different story.

Hey Elizabeth, you do your system a dis-service by referring to it as "in the mid-fi camp." :) To most of us, I think that "mid-fi" = mass market brands; "middle high end" would be more like it!

Regards,
-- Al