I would hope that most would want a system that makes discs sound listenable-this is what I'm looking for in MY system.

I told the wife yesterday I wished you lived at the end of the block, wouldn't that be a blast?

Yes, Bro. that would be a blast, but I might feel sorry for your neighborhood.
The people living between us would be torn between rockin and rollin and smooth groovin.
ha ha
blessings,
Wayne

Last week I was out in the boonies doing a job for a customer, he had a large storage shed filled with old cars and tractors (one of his hobbies) and in his TV room I happened to notice a tiny McIntosh tube setup--a mini preamp, mini amp and a tiny 45 record player. Needless to say this stirred up some conversation. I told him of my love of saxophone's and the problems I'm having and right away he suggests vinyl. I told him that "back in the day" that's what I listened to, I was listening on a great B&O turntable ( still have a few LP's) but the problem nowadays is the lack of contemporary/smooth jazz on vinyl. He too talked about digital glare and it's ugliness and his venturing into vinyl, he's into Big band /Swing. At his house in town he has two different setups, one is McIntosh amps and preamps with various CD players driven into McIntosh speakers. His other setup, I believe is McIntosh equipment (not sure) driven into Bozak speakers. He said the Bozak speakers, at least to his ears, are quite magical. Needless to say, he invited me to come over sometime and have a listen...he doesn't have to ask me twice, I'll be there. He has a tube amp I want to listen to. I hope by listening to his gear I can make some decisions about my setup. I'll let you know when I've had a chance to have a listen, should be most interesting.

Last week I was out in the boonies doing a job for a customer, he had a large storage shed filled with old cars

And what about the cars though? (For any members who are car guys/gals.)

IF a disc is so poorly recorded as to have digital glare, should our systems play it back in such a revealing way that we can't stand the disc? Or is it better to have a system that makes discs at least listenable?

Probably not the right place for this discussion so I might move it, but, you can't have your cake and eat it too. If you want high-resolution you can't smooth over the bad recordings. That said, in my experience, the better the system, the more listenable bad recordings become... up to a point of course. Particularly, the less distortion the speaker produces and the more musical the electronics, the more tolerable a bad recording and the more glorious a good one. My Triton Twos make a lot of stuff listenable that wasn't before, bud bad recordings are still just that, bad.

OK, OK,
I think I get it.
So let me ask this (and Moderator Dude move all of this if you need to):
I got a CD that I really like, Chris Jones "Roadhouses and Automobiles". This recording is AWESOME and some really great music on here too (which is usually not present when you have a really great recording, IMHO). The song "No Sanctuary Here" sounds great even in the car, but on my Tritons it is AMAZING sounding!!!!!
But when I got it, I was told that on a really great system, on the first cut, you could hear crickets on the recording.
I could not. But I thought, when I get my Tritons I will hear them. Triton 3s, I cannot.
Triton 2s, I cannot.
So, 1) my system is still not that revealing (maybe the tube amps?) or 2) there are no crickets, or 3) my ears are not that good.
Can someone help me here? Are there any crickets? Has anybody hear em?
God Bless,
Wayne