Any advice on CD player upgrade?

sorry, dunno why this dint print the last post - here's my experience regarding cd players: w/my ~$500 nad cd changer, my digital is far from state of the art. but, i a-b'd my nad w/a $1700 alchemist nexus cd player, on *my* system, and there was *no* difference between the two. my brother-in-law a-b'd this same alchemist on *his* system w/a $3500 resolution audio cd-55, & he said there were "miniscule" differences between the two, only noticed, & yust "barely", when run in a direct a-b comparison. i can see no reason to upgrade my nad cd player - i wonder how much $$$ i'd really have to spend, if i wanted cd to come close to analog on my system. i agree that cd is way-convenient, but i'm waiting until the 24-192 format (or whatever) is commercially awailable before spending any more $$$ on cd-playback. doug

Outlier, have you tried a toslink connection between your 525 and the DAC1? If not, please give it a try. There is a mention in the new ST review http://www.onhifi.com/product.shtml Hope this helps. Charlie

Danvetc, thanks for the advice. Believe it or not, I did just that a few days ago and ordered a 2M Toslink as per Wes' advice at onhifi.com. I haven't received the toslink yet, but after burn-in I'll post whether I found an improvement. Thanks.

Outlier...see my comments on my BelCanto demo on the "Job, BelCanto, Perpetual Tech DAC" thread. Whereas my time with the BelCanto wasn't all that satisfying, it's clear that it imparted significant changes in upper frequency info, and that these were easily perceived through my Aleph P. Perchance you could swap in a more resolving preamp, as suggested before? I'm glad you're having fun...I'm getting frustrated!

I really like the new Naim CD5. The CDX is even better but not as great a value at twice the price. The CDX/XPS combo is staggering, but the >$8k price tag is really hard to swallow.