everything sounded great until the upgrade

the sound of the "new" amp is decent with my turntable, and terrible with my CD player.

My guess would be that's because analog is so much better than digital. It may not be your CD player, but your CDs. Or both.

When I upgraded my speakers, I could no longer listen to CDs, because (I thought) the CD player was not as good as the rest of my components. I could not listen to ANY CDs without cringing. My records sounded even better though.

Then I upgraded my CD player, and sure enough, many of my CDs sounded much better. But the MAJORITY of my CDs still sounded awful, many of them even worse, and those I just ended up giving to Goodwill. Many of these were from the 80s and 90s, when digital recording and mastering (DDD, "all digital") was considered the apotheosis of recorded sound.

The (sequential) upgrades of my amp, speakers, and CD player gave me some wonderful sound, but also limited me in what I can listen to. Crappy recordings and/or masterings just do not cut the mustard any more. I have to be more diligent and discerning in what recorded material I choose to invest in (both digital and analog, but especially digital). It's a bit of a trade-off, but one I'm content to make, because of the wonderful sound I get with the right recordings.

@ghdprentice 

yes, I am going to buy it, it can't hurt. Worst case is that I will not get it....

But.... I am in it for the fun, and not to climb mountains up in the clouds with zero visibility :)

@theo714 

but also limited me in what I can listen to

that's a hill I don't know how to climb. I need a compromise (system that makes what I like sound good. Maybe there should be a software that re-samples to music we like to our taste :)

@grislybutter 

😊… you’ll get it. 

grislybutter

just a couple of points of interest,                                                                               

a lot of 70s rock albums were great compositions, but with the exception of a few labels (Eg, 1st pressing Columbia's, some DECA's, Deutsche Grammophon) the actual recordings, and the quality of the vinyl being used by the other labels was crapola. Your A3.2 may be a revealing piece of audio gear, and brutal when exposing sh%$ recordings your 2252B didn't divulge.

As for analog VS digital sources, I have two sets of reference speakers, a pair of 946 Focal Electra's and a pair of Meadowlark Heron hot rod's. To save space, lets just say both the analog & digital sources are snob set-ups with the hat tipping to the analog source. The Meadowlark's sound better on my digital source, and it has a tube pre-amp section. I don't know why, but I'm ascertaining the Meadowlark's were voiced using digital gear. 

In your case (don't take this personally) the A3.2 is pretty well engineered, it may be revealing that your cd player is not of the quality you thought it was.

My last point is ..... some gear just doesn't go with some gear. On top of that, perhaps your ears just don't dig Musical Fidelites sonic signature, and the A3.2 isn't your cup of tea???

I'm just saying.