Upgrade my CD player or futile effort?

Nice analog however digital is all about the DAC. Until you find one you like you are in the weeds.

Your analog components retail at approximately $6000 (TT, Cart, and phono pre), and you're comparing the sound to a $550 CD player. Assuming your analog equipment upgrade path resulted in better sound (a 9), why would your digital front end be any different? Would you say your analog path was futile?

What's your digital budget in order to reach a "9" to match your analog front end?

I much appreciate the input so far since my digital knowledge is limited. As I am unsure of the improvements a DAC will bring to my CDP, what about starting with the Denafrips Ares II? I am currently not interested about all the bells and whistles since my only concern is to improve the sound of the CDP. The CDP has an optical out, the dac an optical in and rca connects for my prima luna preamp. Simple enough. What do you think, would that be enough to upgrade my digital sound? I can always go more expensive later if this works.

If I rate my analog sound a 9, I would rate my digital CD a 7. My question is, would I benefit from a better CD player, even so CD6005 is no slouch, or am I gonna end up in a goose chase?

I’d rate your CD sound a generous 4 by today’s standards. My back-of-the-envelope calculations say you’ve got upwards of $10k invested in your vinyl front end versus $500 on a CD player. I mean, I understand when you say your digital knowledge is limited, but you’ve spent 20x more on your vinyl rig yet ask if trying to upgrade your $500 CD player is “futile?” Just how bad do you think digital sound is??? What the hell do you expect from a total investment of 500 bucks? How would a $500 vinyl rig including cartridge and phono pre compare to your current setup? Where does simple common sense kick in here man? C’mon.

Your CD player sucks. I’ve heard it, and it sounds exactly as you describe it. The good news is that at this low level even a relatively meager investment in a DAC will produce very meaningful improvements. Since you’re obviously a fan of vinyl I’d recommend an R2R DAC as they tend to have a more fluid sound that can appeal to (or at least not repel/offend) analog lovers. I’d recommend a Musician Pegasus over the Ares that you can get here for $1099...
https://aoshida-audio.com/products/musician-pegasus
or at least step up to a Denafrips Pontus ll that’ll also be a significant upgrade over the Ares. And PLEASE don’t use an optical connection. Here’s a very reasonable but still very good-sounding SPDIF cable you can use until you feel like an upgrade would be worthy...
https://smile.amazon.com/Geistnotes-Apogee-Wyde-Cable-WE-RR/dp/B01N5VXVA1/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1MMDOS2Y43QM3&dchild=1&keywords=apogee+wyde+eye&qid=1631741543&sr=8-1
You’ve got a nice system, so spending a few extra bucks on your digital setup will pay great dividends. Best of luck.

@soix , just the info I needed. Obviously now I know going with a better CDP without a DAC is worthless. I did not know that because I never cared to research it. Thanks for schooling me.