Looking to Upgrade my CDP

Yashu..I have not listened to Ayre or Cary spinner's. But have listend to their other components. I have no interest in buying a player that is not from Japan. Why? Japan has always made the most musical sounding CD/SACD player's on the market. As most are aware, Sony and Philips invented the Compact Disc in 1980 and that same year Denon built the worlds first CD player which was a commercial test model for recording studio's. All the American and European Audio manufacturer's that make CD player's buy their Transport's from Japan. Japan puts musicality first in voicing their CD player's and will always be ahead of the game.

I'm very happy with my new(used) ARC CD-3... fantastic imaging and dynamics plus no more CD glare.

Question... anybody have experience using HiFi tuning fuses in their CDP? I'm not looking for more detail, but a smoother presentation in the highs.

Audio Research CD players are known as the CD players for analog lovers and I have known them to have very smooth highs. Maybe you could try another interconnect between the CD player and preamp or take another look at speaker cables instead of altering the sound of your CD player.

Rrog, let me explain. My CD3 is quite analogue-sounding, the trouble is with early digital. My listening is 90% classical and strings sound warm and sweet, in fact instruments sound more natural or organic than vinyl (well, vinyl does have some colorations but that's why we love it).
The early period of CD mastering is in a word harsh. My post stems from the fact that I have a massive amount of DG recordings from their rough years with the harsh highs and the over-mic'd brass.

I'm looking for any ideas to make these CDs sound tolerable. My 12 x 16' room is very well damped, although I am going to hang another acoustic panel on the rear wall corner.
My cables are Cardas and there's no money currently to upgrade.

It's been my experience that those old CDs you speak of may just be beyond saving. Like you say, they were mastered poorly due to the limits of tech back then. I've seen folk pass on equipment that I know is good just because it couldn't resurrect a poor recording.

I have a cabinet full of CDs that I no longer listen to because of that. Even supposedly remastered classics like "Dark Side of the Moon" are tolerable for only one listen. Yes, the remastering is commendable but in the end, forgettable.
The harshness still comes through in the form of slightly over emphasized instrumental location which supplants the edginess they engineered out. In short, it still doesn't sound like a modern recording.

I'm presently looking into a Marantz SA-15S2B as maybe the way to dig out the music without surrendering the recording to those old digital artifacts that you speak of. It's gotten good press and is in your ballpark concerning funds.
But it will have to handily defeat my TEAC PD-H600. As for the Ayon, I compared my TEAC PD-H600 to it and the TEAC acquitted itself admirably. It had slightly less body but after a few minutes, it wasn't even noticeable, and still equalled it in about every other aspect. Definitely a case of diminishing returns and not worth the extra money, IMO.

You're going to get a lot of recommendations but I"m afraid you can fit all of our views on that grain of salt. You've got a lot of experimenting to do so good luck in you search and do let the rest of us know what you've decided.

All the best,
Nonoise