What makes a Cd player a Great cd player

Great CD players, of which there are few, do not absolutely butcher string instruments, and in particular, violin. Go listen to a live violin concerto, or for that matter, a violin concerto played on a $500 turntable - 99.99% of CD players sound fundamentally wrong by comparison.

Ddan6815, lots more info about what you're looking for in your most recent post. That's significantly more helpful.

...given your recent system description, I agree with you that spending $2-$3k on a speaker and/or amplification upgrade would yield more significant improvement than would a $2-$3k CD player.

Sorry....Maybe I didn't asked the question correctly.

Isnt there scuttlebut out there that the CD is on its way out and our future will be compressed download dreck?