Will I be a jaw dropping Wow for an upgraded CDP?

There's little doubt that you would find even a mass market consumer CD player a big step up from your Walkman. Your system is plenty good enough to justify a much better source. If you're not looking to spend too much cash, look for a used Sony 333ES (and get SACD playback as a free bonus), an Arcam Alpha 7SE/8SE player or an Arcam CD72. Any of these would set you back less than the $600 budget. You could get a Rega Planet 2000 or a used Meridian 506.20 for about $600 also. Good luck with your search. I'm sure you'll think it was worth it.

A good CD player would be a definite improvement over what you currently use. Money being a concern for you, I would recommend buying used. Maybe a Rotel could be gotten for the amount of money you quote. In the less expensive models, it appears that you have already eliminated one. I, for one, did not like the sound of the Rega, I felt it somewhat dark. I liked some of the things the Roksan Kandy did, a lot of air but maybe, overall, a bit thin. Keep to your budget and try for a home audition is the best recommendation I have. And then, as our vinyl missionary as opined, there's vinyl ... but I think that wasn't your question...

You may want to pick up the Sony DVP9000ES.
Tim

Thanks a lot for all responses of my post.

Response to Twl: I already have quite a lot of CDs so I think I will go with CD route for now. Maybe some days when I make more money I will think about it.

Respose to Natalie: Frankly my MMF CD-25 sounds awful out of the box. It's very harsh and edgy. I burn it it for a day and it sound better, but still not as smooth as my Panasonic C570 CDP. My setup back then was Sennheiser HD600 with Xcan V2 hadphone amp. All detail disappears from the CD25. I end up returning it before it sound right. So I wasn't at the point to tell if it's better or not. I know for the price, it'd better be. I notice that it's fuller and richer compared to C570 CDP, make the Panasonic a bit thin and dry. Frankly it still bothers me if I should give it a second try or not. Mechanism of that unit is awsome.

Now story about MMF-CD25 that I posted on another thred:

I have a different experience with MMH CD-25. I got a demo (never been used) for pretty good deal. As soon as it arrived, I hooked with up with my Xcan V2 headphone amp and Senn HD600 cans. It sounded pretty harsh to my ear, much worse than the Panasonic C570 that I have been using. OK I blaimed it on not burning in. So I left it run over the night on repeat mode. Next day I came back. The player stopped playing. So I sent email to music hall and asked if something was wrong, I got reply back that there was a bug in a program and nothing can do. By that it means that it cannot left running on repeat mode forever. No one is doing that except for burning in period any way. OK ok I thought. Let it burn in a bit more. Then the worse came. The player started freezing briefly (less than a second or so, but I can notice it.) It 's like it didn't know what to do next to it stopped then went on (different than skipping). I though I must have had a bad CD so I played another one. It kept coming. So I gave it up. I was lucky that the store I got it from was happy to have it returned. Still I wasted $40 for shipping both ways.

It may be just a bad unit or not I don't know, but I seem to loose faith in the product. And the fact that it can't play repeat for even over night is a bit fishy to me.

This is just my own experience and I returned it before it sounded right so I can't comment on it. At least what I can say is that my unit sounded awful out of the box.

Ake

If compatible why not try a $200 cal sigma tube dac? I am using one along with a roksan caspian cdp and it does wonders even with this too smooth "high end CDP".

Aloha!