Player that excels at imaging..

I've heard dozens of different kinds of power cords, but I've only heard one power cord give the kind of performance that you seem to be looking for, Virtual Dynamics. Now I'm not a big fan of VD cords/cables, as that front row presentation is not for me.

If you insist that it's the CDP that is the culprit, my only reco that would suit your tases would be the EMM Labs CDSA-SE.....I don't know that it will fit your pocketbook though.

Cheers,
John

I hear the Emm Labs gear is top knotch but evrn used seems out of reach at this point.At there asking price it should be great..The quest is finding a real world priced cdp..

Yeah, I thought the EMM Labs stuff was out of your price range, which is why I recommended the VD power cord......much cheaper, but will give you a similar performance change.

Agree with the power cord.

Disagree with the Pass Labs limitation.

Wadia is great at imaging (ie. 381 or 581). I believe having a wide and layered soundstage that is correct requires brute resolution. There are many components that increase soundstage in an unconvincing manner. For me, musicians need to have have the correct position, size, and stability. This must hold across different venues, genres, and volumes. The soundstage must have the appropriate distance, width, depth, and layering. You should be able to point to each musician individually.

You probably need to look at CDP 6-12k new for a breakthrough in price/performance. There are probably a dozen brands to consider. You still need a power cord, though.

It doesn't look like you can reduce toe-in or increase speaker width, so probably not much to do there. However, do play with speaker position every time you demo a new piece of equipment. Speaker position can be used to highlight or hide certain aspects of your system, so a change necessitates re-evaluation.

Unusual responses.
Power cords? Brute resolution?
Or warm, magically floating, musically holographic, tubes.