Is revealing always good?

Is revealing always a good thing? No.
Is "colored" always a bad thing? No.

There are no absolutes in this hobby, no right or wrong, only what is right or wrong for each individual listener. I have been down the road of ultra resolution, been there, done that. I have found that balance is the key, for me, and probably most others too.

Yes, we all want resolution, but we also have to be able to listen for hours at a time too. If you are running out of the room with your ears bleeding, tone it down a notch. Some gear accentuates the bass, some gear accentuates the high's, some gear is neutral. Make your system sound enjoyable to you. Don't believe all the crap that you read.

It sounds like it's time to dump that CDP for something musical.

lots of variables . To blame sound on one piece of equipment is not accurate . To blame recording quality because it does not sound pleasant to your ears through your system is narrow minded . Open your mind to your surroundings and go from there. Room size treatments and synergy between gear is not gelling if it is unlistenable .It can be fixed . You need the right advice . Lots of bad info on these forums .

Adding a more revealing component to your system will expose what the other components really sound like.

I listen to many 50's & 60's Ruby Van Gelder era Redbook CDs --- some 130 or so of them in rotation because i love that era of jazz. many of these CD's have rather tizzy, grating piano and clarinet --- much digititus. When using a 4K revealing CD player in a 20K system about 1/2 these CDs were too grating to enjoy --- and many of the rest were modestly irritating. On a Creek 1.5K CD player in the same system this darker (presumably colored) CD player rounded off the vast majority of the digititus and the CDs that were unlistenable on the revealing CD player were enjoyable on this more colored, darker player. Admittedly, with reference-level recordings the revealing player was much better. But for lesser recording --- especially redbook CDs with digititus --- a colored, less revealing CD player is much preferable.

My point, counter to Mapman is that revealing is by no means always better --- not if what is revealed is poorly recorded (albeit outstanding) music. Also, sometimes coloration --- if it masks the problems --- is a good thing.

I do not want to give up listening to great music just because of modest to poor recording quality. Revealing bad sonics is not a good thing and masking (at least some of the bad attributes) is better.

Newbee:

What do think of perhaps using an external tube output stage after the CD player but before the preamp?