Upgrade from Cambridge Audio 840C to lessen glare?

As you have a somewhat reasonable budget, I suggest stretching a bit and picking up an Ear Acute. It's 6K, but worth every penny, IMO. It has that quality of being smooth, yet it really digs out the details, unlike some other "smooth" players I've tried, like the Lector, that just sounded too dark for me. PLUS - you can tune the EAR by tube rolling. I happen to like the stock tubes right now, but I did try some vintage Amprex tubes and it was a big difference.

I know it's somewhat over your budget, but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet - always within reason of course. You might even get a dealer demo at a decent discount with a full warranty and all. I have the older model, but the newer one has a digital input, which is not an issue for me. Best of luck

It is so hard to helpfully reply to question like this. We don't know what kind of music you are listening to, the characteristics of your room, and haven't heard specific examples of the "glare" you refer to. That said, take all I say with a grain of salt.

Realize that just because common wisdom says that any "x+y" pairing of equipment brands is wonderful, that doesn't mean YOUR ears and brain will agree.

It's possible that several factors mentioned by others are collectively contributing to your impression of glare. It may take addressing some combination of interconnect and speaker wire, power conditioning, digital equipment, and room acoustics to make things gel in a pleasing way. You are reaching the level of equipment quality where it can become very tricky to balance increasing revelation of detail with the desired overall tonal balance. All of your components are reputed to be on the "neutrality and insight" side of the audio spectrum and sometimes it can all just become to much of a good thing. There can be more than one path forward at this point. It could be your issues would be solved with one change: a good tubed preamp. It might just take addressing room acoustics. Very hard to give meaningful advice if we can't hear what you are hearing. It's going to take experimenting with demoing replacements for suspected culprits from someone like Audio Advisor who offer returns or buying used equipment you can hopefully resell with little to no loss if it doesn't work out.

Hi Brian,
Been through many changes mostly good and a few learning experiences in the past 5 years particularly. Look into Darwin Silver ICs ($295 new, less if demo pair)--very reasonably priced and WAY better sounding in clarity, dynamics, and beauty while offering a very balanced sound spectrum wise. They don't look like much, but the sound is system changing. I will second the Modwright comment made earlier. Have had 2 different MW cd players and they sound so beautiful compared to anything short of $10,000 players--much like really good analog with better dynamics and quieter. Caused me to stay up late many nights listening to just on more cut when I needed to get to bed. Totally changed my mind about digital forever. You can find them used for under $1000 sometimes--or under $1800 for a newer version. About $3500-$4500 new with the mods. Dan at MW really stands behind his products--even the ones bought used. You WILL NOT regret buying one.

One more ModWright fan here. Send an Oppo 105 to Dan and kiss your troubles
goodbye. By the way, I owned the Cambridge and now own a ModWright Sony.
Your new amp may be revealing the true nature of the Cambridge. it had some
virtues, but there was no mistaking it for anything but mid-fi digital.

Brianam 03-14-14
Am currently using both of the 840C's digital in's.

Are the symptoms consistent between CD playback and playback from whatever sources are feeding these inputs?

Also, one thing I would try before replacing the 840C is changing its connections to the preamp from unbalanced to balanced or vice versa, as applicable. For that matter, doing likewise for the connections between the preamp and the new amp.

Regards,
-- Al