Am I deaf?

I agree with another writer that a passive preamp would clear up your problem. I have a CAT SL-1 III with signal path simplified (several switches removed) at the factory (when it went back to have a phono stage added), and my homemade passive (built around dual mono Shallco 32-position "true ladder" attenuator switches, sounds much better on CD's. If you can solder and do a little carpentry or find a suitable chassis, I'd check out the Shallco kit at The Parts Connection, www.sonicfrontiers.com. Otherwise, some decent passives are available for not too much money.

I think the clear minded on to something here. Digital gear differences are small indeed today. But in my auditioning of the Pioneer DVD Players in the lower price end I noticed a high end brightness that might be assumed to presenting more information throughout the frequency spectrum. I become fatigued listening to it compared to a good transport and DAC. But Sony ES has made some great one piece players in the past that get right to the base of the performance vs cost curve. Interesting that Wadia, Krell and others have used versions of the Stable Platter drive in many of their high end designs derived from the Pioneer Elite PD65. I have used the Pioneer Elite PD65 sitting on Bright Star Rock 2, MSB DAC II with Monolithic HC-2 Power Supply, Harmonic Tech AC11 Power Cord to Power Supply and Synergistic Research Power Cord on Line Filter all feeding ARC and Threshold Class A gear (Sysnergistic AC Coupler on AMP)to B&W 801s3 with double runs of biwired HT Pro 11+, Magnan Vi Balanced interconnects. I can always double blind test tell the difference in a DVD 414 player BUT it is not like 8 (out of 10) vs 2 more like 8 vs 5.5. I am confident if this stock market keeps sliding more and more people on this thread will asking also about value in this, too often, fanatical habit. Happy listening.

I hate to just jump on the bandwagon, but what the heck. Dump that integrated and get a decent passive preamp. I have an Audio Synthesis Passion (pricey but superb) and I can detect every slight change in the rest of my system (Cal Delta/Theta Basic IIIa, Golden Tube 300B SE, ProAc 3.8, Harmonic Tech ICs and Analysis Plus Silver Oval speaker cable). Preamps do WAY more work with a signal that most people think, and they can muck it up or let it through. That said, I must confess that the sound of my brand new Toshiba 2200 DVD player is very good. It misses the subtle things (hall ambiance, full harmonic structures, three dimensional images, etc.)but for $260 bucks it is a very respectable sounding unit in its own right. Much better than any sub $1000 CD player I've ever heard.

Now that this has become a pre-amp discussion,those wiht experience might comment on dynamics.Do you loose out with passive?

there is a part of the brightness wich come from the transport ans a part from the converter.Believe me, i experienced a lot of different associations and every time, I noticed this simple fact. The most surprising is that the transport has a lot to do with the brightness (including the digital cable if any). I think that the vibration of the transport stay present in the signal as a jitter that has a spectral component that we percieve as brightness.