Time For a CD Player Upgrade

Didn't hear anyone mention vibration control. Not sure what your CD player is sitting on, but vibrations affect CD players (along with turntables) the most out of anything and I bet (regardless of your surface and flooring) you would benefit greatly from a Townshend platform or podium combo or Symposium's rollerblock Jrs, or some other brand (I only have experience with those companies). There are low level earthquakes going on all the time that you can't feel, but your equipment can.

I was amazed what it did for my turntable so much that I took care of my phono stage and amp and speakers (speakers were also a very highly use case with platforms and rollerblocks where they fit best).

I had the Hegel Mohican and I would guess the Viking has the Hegel house sound as well.  It is quite articulate with CD's less than 25 yrs old.  It will not sugarcoat your older ones, they will sound the same.

@sokogear +1

I wasn't prepared for the changes in sound I got from my IsoAcoustics Oreas under my CDP. I was advised by Music Direct and IsoAcoustics to try them under the base plate and not the footers and move them about to settle on the changes I liked.

That exercise drove me mad, with just a 1/4" move changing the sound dramatically. I tried all manner of positions and would get fantastic highs but smothered mids, magically wonderful mids with curtailed highs, tighter base at the expense of everything else. 

What I settled on was placing them directly under the footers and voila!, pretty much perfect in all aspects. The thing is, no matter where I placed the Oreas, the better results came from one directly under the CD drive mechanism, when using the base plate in place of the footers. That told me just how much vibration is in a CDP or CDT.

All the best,
Nonoise

Yeah ok a $6,999 cd player.....just what I don't need.

I just read some comments on the Michi Q5 on a short YouTube video of it and a Michi fan/owner said it uses the same $25 CD drive mechanism as Pro-Ject and that Marantz and Jays sound better. How he knows that is beyond me unless he's already auditioned it, which is highly unlikely. He even went on to say he'll probably get it anyway. 

Must be nice to have that much disposable income. 

All the best,
Nonoise