Our town has bad tasting tap water too, but we have one of those Pur faucet filters, and before that we had a pitcher filter. I'm a fan of the faucet filter though! I'm not sure how the syrup will mask the flavor, but I'd think it would! It might not work as well unfiltered for the sparkling fruit water though as that's a much lighter flavoring! Otherwise I'd recommend a filter, it makes life so much easier and is way better than bottled water!

You make the soda a liter (I think?) at a time! You get a really nice bottle with the system. We bought an extra to go with it so we could have a cold bottle of water in the fridge to put stuff in when we finish a bottle. :D