everything sounded great until the upgrade

@12many 

That's a reasonable path, I find CDs becoming a pain, a clutter. Not that LPs don't take up space. So it doesn't matter where I store it, if it connects to a DAC, that's all I need?

@grislybutter

I am not sure about the equipment.  For a while I had a USB memory stick plugged into the back of an AV receiver.  I also use the USB output (from a computer) with a USB cable into a DAC and from the dac to the amp.  I am transitioning to a new system (I had old not great stuff before) and looking at the HIFI rose and liked that it would stream with Qobuz (sp?) and also could load my FLAC files into it somehow (now quite sure).  Thanks can be complicated now but my plan is go Streamer (to DAC inside streamer) to amp to speakers to try to be simple.  I have been saving for years.  

You don’t give much info. 
 

new electronics can take several weeks worth of continuous music playing to break in. Until break in completes sound can be thin compressed and lacking in warmth and bass. 
 

if you have passed the point of break it you may have a bad match. 

I'd agree with a lot of the comments here. Listen to it casually for several weeks to let the amp settle in and for you to get use to the sound. Then you can begin to decide on what needs improvement.

A good high quality DAC would solve your harsh CD sound. You could use your existing CD player as a transport if it has some kind of digital out (optical, coax, etc.)

Before I knew about DACs (circa last year), I thought that was just how all digital sources sounded - harsh and bright. Early this year, I bought a Chord Qutest DAC, and now the vinyl upgrades have taken a backseat to the digital upgrades.

Don't forgo high quality cables if you're going this route - not to trigger, cable deniers, but for me it was the difference between really good and transformative.

I hadn't plan to spend as much as I did, but after the fact I found it to be money well spent.

You don't say what amp. you have so it is difficult to comment. Have you somehow changed a "gain" setting somewhere in your system that could be affecting how aggressive and unpleasant it now sounds?