Your experience:a cdp that gets best of lesser cds


I'm looking for a cd player that will get more out of the playback and sound of lesser quality recordings and/or poorly remastered cd's from the past (example: 70's soul/ 50's and 60's jazz remasters. By "more" I mean less thinness, leaness, in the sonics and more weight and lows, yet not rolled off or muted in the highs. In other words, a player that will dig deeper- do more with a lesser cd. I currently have an excellent player, the Modwright Sony 999ES, fully loaded, but synergy-wise it's not maximizing in my system. I'm looking for a used player in the $2500 -$3k area that will improve the sound quality on some of the lesser cd's I own. The one thing about this hobby that frustrates me no end is the synergy thing which can take away great performance from a quality piece of gear. My system: LSA/DK Signature int, Reimer Wind River GS, Modwright Sony,Acoutstic Zen cabling, Shunyata Hydra- various aftermarket PC's. Do you know of such a player?
foster_9
Vegasears is right, my fathers DV60 does this also, and I cant remember the settings names but the second selection tamed hash up on 1st generation cd's. But overall the Esoteric is more detailed or analytical then we thought it would be, his Lexicon RT10 wich the DV60 replaced has a warmer and smoother sound signature.
Thanks a lot everyone for your words of advice. I always appreciate getting advice here. Herman, I'm looking for a player that provides a little more weight to the presentation of older recordings. Not looking for a DAC but I've considered an eq. In my original post I said I was looking for a player that would provide less thinness, leaness, in the sonics and more weight and lows, but not rolled off or muted in the highs with my older recordings. I just want a little more meat on the bones of the sonic picture with my old recordings that often sound anemic. I currently have 2 cdps with the Sony as my main unit. It's excellent, and I believe it just doesn't have the best synergy with the rest of my setup and thus isn't performing to its full potential. I believe that a player that had better synergy in my setup would be more satisfying even with the older cd's I have.
Tvad - You should avoid making condensending remarks about people's "colored" suggestions when you are guilty of it yourself. You start off by suggesting that anything other than the Modwright is colored and then keep suggesting these tubes to effectively change (i.e. color) its sound. You don't honestly believe your Sylvanias are as uncolored as any other tubes, do you? What about the Paradisea DAC? Is it uncolored only if you have the Modwright as a transport? Your point isn't clear at all. Nevertheless, I am glad to see you come around and accept that even the Modwright's sound can be modified from "neutral," whatever that is.

Arthur
03-14-07: Aball
Tvad - You should avoid making condensending remarks about people's "colored" suggestions when you are guilty of it yourself. You start off by suggesting that anything other than the Modwright is colored and then keep suggesting these tubes to effectively change (i.e. color) its sound.
Arthur, I never intended to suggest that the Modwright is uncolored and all other players are colored. If I gave that impression, then I needed to be more precise in my writing, because it's absolutely the opposite of what I believe, and I certainly had no intention of being condescending. So, let me correct it here.

Yes, the Modwright is colored. I happen to like it's coloration, and even more so with some tubes other than those provided with the unit. In fact, I made the following statement in a post above:
Even the Modwright has information either missing or colored differently from other digital sources I have owned. It's a matter of preference.

The Paradisea is also colored. Wonderfully so. In fact, it's exactly the meat-and-bones coloration that might fit Foster_9's goal perfectly.

The only digital source that I have ever owned that I believe showed the least amount of coloration, and yet was amazingly musical with tremendous meat on the bones was an APL Denon 3910.

Now, I'm going to re-read my posts to see where I wrote that the Modwright is uncolored and all other players are colored. It bothers me that you read my post as such, because it was not my intention to convey that message. Further, I did comment that the rectified tube power supply added to the naturalness of the Modwright's sound (freedom of grain and an added liquidity), but I don't believe I ever stated that the Modwright is neutral.

Frankly, in my opinion several of us are on the same page, and yet there is a continuing debate among us as though we are on opposite sides of the topic, and I cannot figure out why this is so.
Foster 9, You have restated your desires - I completely read thru these and went to the obvious complaint so many folks have about 'glare', so common in early CD's. Sorry 'bout that. Noting your desires, my recommendation would be the same. A well broken in Raysonic, using stock EH 6922's, has a full, reasonably tight, warm bass/lower mid-range, lots of detail without brightness, and of the 3 CDP's I'm currently using it provides the best imaging. It ain't perfect but its dammed good, and in MHO it fits your description of what you want in a 2d CDP. BTW, no commercial interest in the success or failure of this unit. I just think its a hell of a value when I see them selling used for as little as $1200. :-)