dedicated cd player or dvd-cd

My Marantz DVD player does pretty well. Running it 2 -channel via external stereo tube DAC drastically changes the sound in a way that will appeal more to tube lovers.

For multi-channel A/V however, the tube DAC I am using will not support other digital formats beyond 2 channel stereo that are multi-channel digital formats out of the DVD player player however. There may be other external DACs that do, not sure about that.

What tube dacs do you folks recommend ?

I can recommend the mhdt Paradisea and vouch for many of the good things others have said about it if you do a google search on it.

Who sells the Paradisea ?

If it is 'new' perhaps it needs some time - say 100-200 hours. CD players can sound quite different once they've been played a bit; usually it is a noticeable improvement with brightness diminishing and a more fully formed body of music emerging, including improved bass. Can't hurt to run it 24/7 for a week or so and see what happens.

Also, try placing it on some brass footers like Mapleshade footers or the footers offered by Herbies Audio Labs. These, too, usually bring a noticeable improvement.

So, time and tweaking may be your first step before replacing it.