CDP Help Rotel 1070, Sony 333 or Music Hall CD 25


I sold my Audio Analogue Puccini Amp and Rotel 971 CDP and Got a Classe CAP100 Amp and have temporarily been using my Toshiba DVD player as my CDP. I have Sonus Faber concertino speakers and a PSB subwoofer. The Audio Analogue and Rotel had a great midrange presence, warmth and image size that I miss. It did lack drive, slam, resolution and transparency that the Classe now gives. Now my vocals seem a little recessed. I like the vocals life size and at the plane of the speakers not recessed.
I can only spend about $350 and the above CDP seem available in the used market. Which do you think can do the job until one day I can get an even better CDP?
Also has anyone tried the Rotel's balanced outputs to sucess? The Classe amp has true Balanced inputs that supposedly will improve sound if I get a CDP with balanced outs. I thank you in advance for reading this and any helpful input.
Thank you very much.
gregg
I really appreciate your observations and your time to write. I have heard in a review, that the Music Hall has a somewhat smallish Vocal image size. Seems like when I went from my Rotel 971 to my DVD player my image size for vocals went small or recessed. Could you comment on the Sony and Music halls image size, presence or placement of vocals? At plane of speaker or recessed?
Thanks
As a CD player, in general, the Music Hall is superior. I really can't think of any area Sony is superior - aside from bass.

The imaging of the Music Hall seems fine. Of course, my reference is probably thrown off kilter by the fact that I am using OTL monoblocks and satellite speakers having a pyramidal shape. Along with my preamp, the amps, and the speakers are masters at imaging. Put them together, and I am not sure how much the Music Hall is playing into that system.

My friend who owns the Music Hall and the Jolida could not get past how great he thought the imaging was in that system.

I apologize for not being very informative, but like I said, I cannot really gauge the Music Hall in such a system. I will say this, I have heard the player in many other systems, and it has always acquitted itself very well.

When my friend who I just mentioned was auditioning speakers over the summer, we were listening to a pair of JMlabs Chorus speakers, using a Cambridge D500SE player. The sound just lacked any slam or excitement. It was quite homogeneous. I asked the salesperson if we could switch to the Music Hall, as I felt that was a limiting factor here. He was an audiophile jumping big into the hobby, after a 20 year hiatus. He told me that he thought I was crazy to think a CD player could make a difference. But, lo and behold, the Music Hall opened up the sound a tremendous amount. The dynamics improved immeasurably.

As far as the Sony goes, it also seems to image well. However, I cannot say it is a champ. My Jadis amplifier and the Fried's MARS System also image extremely well.
Trelja, thanks for your input - I got the Shanling (Chinese Version of the Music Hall CD 25) It looks great, sounds great! Similar to my Rotel 971, but the pacing is a bit better and the HDCD seems to make a bigger difference than it did on the Rotel. Vocals are now Life Size and have presence. Overall my system is just about the way I like it! Sonus Faber supposedly warm, Classe supposedly warm - although when Stereophile rated the CAP 100 with a 'A' rating it said it was on the bright side. My CAP 80 definitely was warm. With the Music hall the system is transparent, detailed, rich, at times almost could be warmer. Cables are supposedly on the warm side: PS audio power for the Amp, Audio Power for the CDP, MIT for the Speakers. But maybe it's the Nordost on the interconnects....I suppose I should call it quits now.....