CDP suggestions for bright system?

I know there is no way you can get one for $500, but in my opinion the Sony SACD players are "overly" smooth. They more than compensate for that bright CD sound that we have tried to cure with warmer sounding components and never quite worked out. There may be models available soon at that price that can play DVD's too. Don't buy one yet. But keep it in mind.

ah Tjoeb 99, there is one out there used for $300. It is a modified Marantz player with a tube output stage. Otherwise I think that anything in the $500 will be pretty messy in the high end.

Hi Widner. IMO you have two components in your system that tend to be a bit lean and have a reputation for being a little bright and analytical sounding. This is not to say that your equipment is not of high quality or what have you but I've owned and Acurus A150 along with the Acurus RL-11, ACD-11(which I still own as a transport)and had them connected using DH Labs and I found the sound the of this system to be a little lean and on the cold side. However, I paid a little more attention to my room acoustics and it helped my system dramatically. How does your room sound? Does it have sufficient sound absorbing materials in the room like thick curtains, book shelfs or carpet? This approach may help you identify more quickly the problem components even before you get your new CD player.

i'd recommend one-o-dem cheap tube buffer stages like the ase z-man, or a similar musical-fidelity unit - dunno its model #. i have an ase z-man that served me well until a melos tube preamp made it unnecessary. still kepin' it for a second system. ewe should be able to pick one up for ~$100.

personally, i don't tink it's worth spending any serious money on digital until the next-generation format gets settled, & software is readily awailable... i don't tink i'm gonna get any worthwhile improvement w/digital over my nad cd-changer run thru my melos preamp, even if i spend $2k on something used...

ymmv, doug

This isn't what you asked Widener, but I believe that you should banish from your system any component that is either not neutral or is dynamically constrained. So it worries me that you are going to add to your existing "brightness" problem by adding a warm or dull and compressed CD player. In my long trek in this hobby I have often fallen foul of this very predicament - only to realise that tolerating any colored or dynamically constrained component can cause you enormous expense trying to compensate for it. High end sound and components is not just about balancing up colorations to get a neutral result - matching one bright component with one dull one does not result in audio bliss IMHO. Therefore I would urge you to consider going to the greater effort of finding out what is causing the brightness, whether it be room, component or cable, and fix it first. I suspect my suggestion will not be good news, but I believe it will serve you better in the long run.