I have an old 85 vintage CDP I use in my work office. I found interconnects that smoothed out the sound considerably. Specifically the old MIT PC Squared. I found it interesting that an old (technology) pair of cables would make an old CDP sound great. It may not be an accident. The PC Squared were a little dull with modern equipment. It makes some sense that they would have been tuned to make components of their day sound good.
Add-on improvement to analog-only CDP?
I have a vintage 1986 dbx CDP with only analog outputs. The dbx processing circuits generally make this old timer sound better than most new CDPs I've heard, but its still a bit harsh. Are there any improvements I can make to it, or add between it and the preamp, that don't involve a soldering iron or megabuck cables.