Warm, fullbodied, smooth, and transparent

Pmboyd, just read your post, will check out Golden Reference,Golden Cross thread. Thx.

hate to bust your baloon, but warm and transparent cannot co exist. check the definition of "transparent" and warm".

Perhaps a better word would be dynamic on the upper end.

As what I was eluding to was a synegistic sound from top to bottom. not closed in with a rolled off top end, thus transparent with all the fore mentioned attributes..

Seabreeze, I'm not familiar with your Cambridge Audio CD player, but, considering that it could be your no-name IC that's making your CD player sound bright, not the player itself, you may want to audition what is generally regarded as a neutral cable, as well. A warm cable could, potentially, push you too far in the opposite direction.

You never mentioned a price range for the IC you want to buy, information that would be helpful.

08-07-11: Mrtennis
hate to bust your baloon, but warm and transparent cannot co exist. check the definition of "transparent" and warm".

Hadn't really thought about that, but that's fundamentally true: "Warm" means a tonal balance tilted toward the bass with some rolloff of the highs. Transparent requires fast risetime, which means frequency response way out to the ultrasonic range.

I stand by my earlier recommendation of the AQ Black Mamba II for its smoothness and clarity without being bright.

However, in my experience, the Cambridge components tend to sound a bit bright and forward. The Black Mambas might help, as well as sitting the CDP on a set of weight-correct Vibrapods.