Warm, fullbodied, smooth, and transparent

Thanks to all who have contributed. Presently doing do diligence on the recommendations. Ultimately hope to narrow it down to a few, and then buy them here, try them out on the system, the winner will stay, and the others will get sold off. Think that will be the best way to approach this project to get the system to match synergistically.

Pmboyd, just read your post, will check out Golden Reference,Golden Cross thread. Thx.

hate to bust your baloon, but warm and transparent cannot co exist. check the definition of "transparent" and warm".

Perhaps a better word would be dynamic on the upper end.

As what I was eluding to was a synegistic sound from top to bottom. not closed in with a rolled off top end, thus transparent with all the fore mentioned attributes..

Seabreeze, I'm not familiar with your Cambridge Audio CD player, but, considering that it could be your no-name IC that's making your CD player sound bright, not the player itself, you may want to audition what is generally regarded as a neutral cable, as well. A warm cable could, potentially, push you too far in the opposite direction.

You never mentioned a price range for the IC you want to buy, information that would be helpful.