Best Cd Player under $4000?

I took Jaybo to mean speaker placement, not REplacement, the implication being that this would result in more audible differences than many CDP upgrades you might consider. This might say a lot about both speaker placement and CDPs. John

yes...move those speakers around in your room. some are a bit more critical about placement then others, and it can make a big difference. its a classy speaker, and should have great midrange and weight, even with a walkman.

I have a pair of Focal speakers and I foudn them to be slightly on the leaner side of the neutral. However they are fast, articulate, dynamic, and can sound very very nice with right set of equipments.

I don't think you want to augment the sound by replacing the source. I believe the goal of the source is to get the music out of the medium as accurate as possible, without coloring any sound on its own.

Tweaks and placements will help getting balanced sound up to a point, but if you don't like the fundamental sound of the speakers you should consider getting a different pair. However there is no perfect solution. Richer sounding speakers often times are not as dynamic, or articulate, or extended.

I would rather recommend trying out different amps. Next to the speakers, the amps have the most variety in terms of technology being used and also the variety in the sound resulting from it.

Are your speakers far enough away from the front wall? There should be a minimum of at least 3 feet to improve sound-staging; however too far away and you may lose some bass reinforcement, and your system could sound lean.

Have you tried removing the Line Conditioner?

If you want to improve you're front-end than you may want an external DAC?

If your looking for a CD Player, than check out a Modwright Sony 999ES or 9100ES, or 5400ES player

I'm not sure your CD Player is the problem though, you know what happens sometimes in this hobby is that, over time the better your ears get..., then we start to no longer appreciate what used to satisfy us. If this is the case, than you may want to put that $4000 plus the resale value of your current speakers into upgrading your speakers.

Assuming that moving your speakers around doesn't solve your problem, which by the way is the first thing that you should do, then you should consider a speaker with a deeper bass response than the 45hz of your current speakers, which is actually on the lean side as mentioned above. You will also get much better sound-staging, if you go up their speaker line.

Here are some Articles on Speaker Placement:

http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/speakerplacement.html

http://www.thielaudio.com/THIEL_Site05/PDF_files/PDF_owner_info/CS3_7ownerinfo.pdf

Rich

Not denying the importance of careful speaker placement, I would suggest not to underestimate what the source can do. Try listen to a (thoroughly burned-in) Accuphase DP500 and check out soundstage depth and intrument color (others like new Esoteric SA50, Ayre CX7MP or Modwright Transporter might provide a similar ticket, would love to try those). Such a machine will most probably lift a system's musicmaking above timberline.. at least i can say it did in mine, compared to already quite or very fine units like Lavry or Benchmark DACs or AA Capitole, or Transporter.