Dedicated cdps that excel in vertical soundstaging

Newbee, I am with you with the tubes cdp.

I never experienced a realistic soundstage until I added tubes into the system. A tubed CD player and tubed preamp does the trick. A tubed amp adds a touch more if you want to go "full tube". My experience is that any of the modified tube CD players will present a more 3D soundstage versus their solid state counterparts.

realistic soundstage? realistic imaging? I never quite understand that. the only way a soundstage can be judged as "realistic" is to have a recording of a live (acoustic) performance, and know exactly where all the muscians were playing on the stage. Seems to me, other than that, soundstage/imaging are as "realistic" as the sound engineer's mixing board....

Warrenh, I define realistic exactly as you have described it...listening to a
recording of an acoustic performance and being able to close one's eyes
and visualize the musicians placement on stage. Tubes have enabled
me to do this better than solid state.

Tvad, what I don't understand, however, is how do you know that your "visualization" is accurate if you weren't at the performance? How do you know where the musicians were set up? Or, does it matter?