Hey, here’s some good news for people who love bad news.
Making bad recordings tolerable has been a goal with most of my gear purchases over the years. I chose the trashy content of my evaluation playlist expressly to evaluate uneven source quality. While I find many recordings are indeed bad, I also sometimes…enjoy…noise rock, distortion, loudness war victims, and amateur productions.
My main findings and strategies:
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Treble is the worst offender. Start with a warmer or neutral DAC with a pure and inoffensive high end. Choose an amp with rolled off treble. I’ve sometimes swapped technically superior tubes for those with a mid-range focus (or even bloat), and sacrificed air and soundstage to make recordings bearable.
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Albums such as the RHCPs Californication have fatal dynamic compression. Anything you can do to increase the dynamic range and thereby reduce the average volume will help. Still, with my evaluation playlist it always stands out versus other vocals as much louder and one dimensional.
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Some aging artists seem to not be able to hear artifacts (e.g., going deaf or mastered on a HD 600). This is not treble per se or even what I’d consider musical intent, just weird random static or scratchy stuff. I’ve used EQ to cut the highs sharply, as the rest of the track may be fine.
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For whatever reason, I find the OG Focal Clear to have inoffensive treble (vs. all other Focal product I’ve heard). Given its relatively punchy character, it can substantially transform bad recordings in a good way. I’m not saying the change is accurate, but its limits and quirks cancel out some problems.