CD Player Under $1.5k With Vinyl Sound


After getting exposed to vinyl I begin to feel that I am not enjoying the sound from my CD player anymore. In comparison to the lush, organic and liquid sound from my vinyl rig, the CD player sounds mechanical, compressed and congested as music doesn't seem to flow out in 3-dimensional scale. Whenever I switch from CD to vinyl I often find myself completely immersed into the music. Since I got a turntable I have not found enjoyment in listening to CD's anymore and have been spending considerably less time with the format. In fact, the CD player was left untouched for more than 1 month now. I did try to listen but everytime a CD goes into the player the listening session will be less than 5 minutes before I go grab my records and start spinning some tunes.

My question is, are there any good and musical CD players in the current production around the $1.5k bracket that sound close to vinyl? I am not interested in extreme detail, resolution and transparency. I am more concerned on musicality and an overall toe-tapping factor. I want a sound that is full, natural, lush and organic and yet cast a wide soundstage without any trace of harshness and sibilance often associated with digital. I am aware that some good CD players, often in the higher priced bracket sound extremely close to vinyl, so my interpretation doesn't entirely apply with all digital.

For the record, my CD player is a Krell KPS-30i and turntable a Rega P5. The only aspect I like about digital is on its quietness in the lack of pops, crackles and clicks often associated with analog(dirty or less than perfect records). Other than that I am truly smitten with the vinyl sound. I hope a special CDP could salvage things and bring some life back into my CD collection.
ryder
Many find non-oversampling CDPs less fatiguing, but lacking detail. Audio Note, Red Wine Audio, Scott Nixon, are a few to consider in that camp. Many are <$500.
I agree that tube output sections also are a step towards what you are after. I found myself in the same situation as you, and have been resonably happy with a Musical Fidelity TriVista 21 dac (Nuvistor tubes) and a Squeezebox and/or older Sony cdp as transport. You can find the TriVista 21 used around $1200. Cheers,
Spencer
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Hi,

The consonance cd-120 linear is quite analogue sounding, detailed, smooth and natural sounding. Good imaging and quite dynamic. It sound very real with voices and instruments.

Cheers,
Steve.
I want to chime in. As a committed analog nut, I recently replaced my 18 year old Yamaha CDX-1030. I accepted the fact that so much is not available on vinyl for my VPI TNT, Graham Phantom Mk ii and Clearaudio Stradivari.

I went with April Music's Stello separates, the CDT-100 and DAC-100 Signature, $895 and $995 retail respectively. With a little haggling, you can get at least $100 off each unit - close to your price target.

After about 200 - 250 hours, I could not be happier - very high value.

Brent