My latest upgrade


I have an old Denon CD player that is really showing its weakness now that I've gone through the process of upgrading my other components. I need some ideas on what would go well with this setup. I'd like to spend between $500 and $1,000. The closer to $500 the better. Any ideas?

Here's my setup.

Manley Stingray
Audio Magic Interconnects
AP Oval 9's
Harbeth Compact 7's.

Thanks!

Steve
smccull
Natalie, are you confident my suggestions would not net better sound than Steve spending his entire budget on a CDP?
Sub the 541 is more like it. Still feel based on his other nice gear a Better source is required.

I am from the school of Source being the most important part in the chain.

No amp Speaker or pre can change the original signle.
Thanks for everyone's help. I actually decided to go with the Ah! Njoe Tjoeb. It sounds like a very nice tube CDR with lots of future tweaking opportunities.

I'll let everyone know how it sounds after I've had a chance to break it in.

Steve
Sounds like you made a great choice Steve. Natalie, I agree, the source is ultimately the most important part of the equation, but exceptional sound requires that a number of elements be optimized. The suggestions I made are applicable regardless of which source is chosen. The NAD 514 was a good choice simply because it is a really good performer at a very low price, allowing other beneficial systems components to be purchased within the given budget. I am fully pursuaded, from personal experience, that a $1,000 spent as I have suggested would yield superior results to spending the entire budget on the CDP.
I got the Ah! Njoe Tjoeb in yesterday and I have to say already I'm very happy. I was a little worried that all the positive feedback for Kevin at Upscale Audio was bogus feeds from friends of Kevin. I can happily report that that's not the case. I've been extremely pleased. He threw in an extra set of Rocket Logo tubes I'm playing with them right now. I haven't tried out the stock Phillips tubes, only because I heard that they were not the smoothest sound.

I can say that out of the box this CDR sounds great! Really smoothed out the sound in my room and took away the harshness and brightness. I still have some room tweaks to do but this source upgrade has made a HUGE difference.

Thanks again to all!

Steve