CD has laid back and uninvolving sound

What powercord are you using? Also, interconnects

What album were you comparing? Many modern CD's sound worse than high
quality Vinyl. The hyper compression of dynamics in the mastering process
makes many CD's sound harsh in your face and completely lacking subtlety,
nuance and "life".

I have two CD's of Duran Duran Rio. The first one is flat and terrible sounding.
The second one sounds much more like Vinyl. This second one was remastered
from the original master tapes and came out after the first CD. So it is a mixed
bag.

If you want to make an accurate comparison - try Mudcrutch by Tom Petty - the
vinyl comes with a audiophile CD made from the master tapes whilst the regular
CD release is compressed crap, as usual, thanks to the major labels.

I think Mr Tennis would love it.

Tim

Eee3: I have used various interconnects and power cords (also expensive ones) but it is not a cable problem. This problem is more complex and I'm afraid cables could not solve this. Shadorne: that is interesting to have both the audiophile vinyl and CD in one package. I listened to Händels Messiah this afternoon (René Jacobs, Harmonia Mundi CD) and I found the midrange not so fleshed out and overall sound also less warm than vinyl. To me it is not only a matter of "bad" mastering but this type of sound is inherent to CD reproduction. Of course you can warm the sound up with tubes but then you would only change the cosmetics.

Chris