best cd player for 300-500 bux

Or the MHDT paradesia DAC that seems to get raves anytime it gets brought up. it's on my demo list.

I concur with getting an outboard DAC though. in your price range to get anything that has a chance of being an upgrade, that would be the way to go.

and to add, getting another player just for a removable power cord makes no sense to me.

dude, weird. did you move your speakers? first thing I would check. are your speakers working correctly? try playing with speaker placement and toe-in.

the cdp will automatically bypass the internal dac if you use one of the digital outs -- coax or optical. it will prob have at least the coax out, most cdp's do.