Am I deaf?

No, I don't think you are deaf. Although I haven't heard the other electronics in your system, they seem capable of revealing any differences if any. Now of course there is still the issue of the room. But I'm not suprised if they all sound pretty similar. I've been listening to these high-end toys for nine years now and I don't know what alot of people talk about. We'll I used too, but now it all sounds like crap except for my Van Alstine/Biro system which sounds, in my book, quite decent and worth the money. I wasn't even the least impressed with the Wilson X-1's when I heard them a year and a half ago. You might just want to try a marantz CD-67 and save some money. Now of course I know I haven't heard even a sizeable fraction of all the stuff out there, so maybe I just hit all the wrong ones the whole way here. Who knows?

The biggest problem here is the built in preamp with your amp. I had a classe cp35 preamp and I still have the ca-100 amp. The cp35 was junk. I can't imagine how bad the integrated sounds. Well I'm sure it sounds good but I can tell you your other gear has far surpassed the capability of the preamp or whatever you would call it that is built into the integrated. If you want to be blown away try a passive preamp from reference line. My jaw dropped when I replaced my cp35 with one. Just get rid of that integrated or only use the amp part of it because your maxed out! I used to only notice slight diffrences in front ends also if any. After I got a passive preamp everything I've tried has it's own distinct character. From wadia to theta to audio alchemy It lets everything through. Or you could spend 2-3 times as much on a powered one to get the same sound. either way you need a new preamp thats the bottom line. I also strongly recommend a really good digital cable like the MIT reference. That also made a dramatic differance that was hard to believe. These two things were the best upgrades I ever did for my system. Oh yeah I'm also using the pioneer 525 as a transport and until I can get a dac 1 I'm using a $300 audio alchemy dac-in-the-box. I can tell you that this little thing blows doors off the 525 as a player so I can't imagine what you should be hearing with that great front end gear you have been trying out.

Use your ears! To much bullshit in high-end audio.

I agree with another writer that a passive preamp would clear up your problem. I have a CAT SL-1 III with signal path simplified (several switches removed) at the factory (when it went back to have a phono stage added), and my homemade passive (built around dual mono Shallco 32-position "true ladder" attenuator switches, sounds much better on CD's. If you can solder and do a little carpentry or find a suitable chassis, I'd check out the Shallco kit at The Parts Connection, www.sonicfrontiers.com. Otherwise, some decent passives are available for not too much money.

I think the clear minded on to something here. Digital gear differences are small indeed today. But in my auditioning of the Pioneer DVD Players in the lower price end I noticed a high end brightness that might be assumed to presenting more information throughout the frequency spectrum. I become fatigued listening to it compared to a good transport and DAC. But Sony ES has made some great one piece players in the past that get right to the base of the performance vs cost curve. Interesting that Wadia, Krell and others have used versions of the Stable Platter drive in many of their high end designs derived from the Pioneer Elite PD65. I have used the Pioneer Elite PD65 sitting on Bright Star Rock 2, MSB DAC II with Monolithic HC-2 Power Supply, Harmonic Tech AC11 Power Cord to Power Supply and Synergistic Research Power Cord on Line Filter all feeding ARC and Threshold Class A gear (Sysnergistic AC Coupler on AMP)to B&W 801s3 with double runs of biwired HT Pro 11+, Magnan Vi Balanced interconnects. I can always double blind test tell the difference in a DVD 414 player BUT it is not like 8 (out of 10) vs 2 more like 8 vs 5.5. I am confident if this stock market keeps sliding more and more people on this thread will asking also about value in this, too often, fanatical habit. Happy listening.