CD suggestions and help with Musical Fid. and BMW?

Thanks for all of your responses. I would spend up to 2.5K on a cd player (my guess as to what's appropriate given the other components) if the impact was big enough. Regarding the cables, they are harder to demo given the current variety of dealers out there, so i'm not sure how to proceed. I'm very interested to CD recommendations given my system and concerns, and any ideas for demoing cables.

I disagree with you, Natalie. Jeff said his problem was that the highs are overly dominant, thereby making the sytem sound overly bright and unbalanced. IMHO, that symptom is a cable issue. If he had said that his highs were grainy or that the system sounded weak, I would agree that it was his old CD player.

I also have a MF a3 amp/preamp but with adio physic tempos. I use straigthwire encore II interconnects with nordost solar wind speaker cable. I also want to upgrade my source which is a Sony changer. I read Mcintosh makes a new one and that Carey will be introducing one in the coming year. The other solution might me to keep your changer for "party" time and buy a goog single drawer for serious listening. Has anyone heard The McIntosh. It looks wonderful.

Jeffsel - from the information you've given, I would guess that the problem you're experiencing is a result of a few issues - and yes, cables are one of the issues - but not necessarily the Tara.

Can you tell us about your room? Do you have hardwood floors, a large coffee table? Windows? I have a feeling that highly reflective surfaces dominate your room.

While you do need a new CD player, I wouldn't expect to find one which warms up the sound - the way you would like. The Rega's are "warm" sounding - the Sony XA777ES is warm sounding but.. if the rest of the system (and ROOM) isn't optimized, you'll have similar results - even with better digital front ends.

Musical Fidelity uses a different type of IEC AC connector than most gear - at least they do on their new 3D CD player so I am assuming that they do on the A3 stuff as well... which leads me to power cords. I guess you're using stock power cords right? And of course the Marantz has an attached power cord, right? (I'm guessing here).

Let me know.

These are MY personal thoughts on the question as presented. As such, others might agree or disagree:

Musical Fidelity SS gear sounds "quick & lean" to me, i.e. it has limited bass weight.

B&W's can sound somewhat bright in many systems.

Almost all older CD players / changers tend to sound "digital" i.e. hard and glaring.

Tara's typically tend to sound somewhat warm and smooth but can produce brash sounding cymbals IF the other components tend to highlight that frequency range. Burning of the cables can help this out quite noticeably but is not a cure-all in ANY case. It simply refines what is already present in the cable.

Besides trying to balance out the system a little better, i would check into some room treatments. Paying a visit to Jon Risch's website may work wonders for you and keep some of your money in your pockets. I'm specifically suggesting some of his sound absorption panels or something similar placed at the point of first reflection. DON'T think that you'll get anywhere near the results by using "Pro-Foam" or something similar, as it absolutely pales in comparison. Sean
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