Best Cd Player under $4000?

I have a pair of Focal speakers and I foudn them to be slightly on the leaner side of the neutral. However they are fast, articulate, dynamic, and can sound very very nice with right set of equipments.

I don't think you want to augment the sound by replacing the source. I believe the goal of the source is to get the music out of the medium as accurate as possible, without coloring any sound on its own.

Tweaks and placements will help getting balanced sound up to a point, but if you don't like the fundamental sound of the speakers you should consider getting a different pair. However there is no perfect solution. Richer sounding speakers often times are not as dynamic, or articulate, or extended.

I would rather recommend trying out different amps. Next to the speakers, the amps have the most variety in terms of technology being used and also the variety in the sound resulting from it.

Are your speakers far enough away from the front wall? There should be a minimum of at least 3 feet to improve sound-staging; however too far away and you may lose some bass reinforcement, and your system could sound lean.

Have you tried removing the Line Conditioner?

If you want to improve you're front-end than you may want an external DAC?

If your looking for a CD Player, than check out a Modwright Sony 999ES or 9100ES, or 5400ES player

I'm not sure your CD Player is the problem though, you know what happens sometimes in this hobby is that, over time the better your ears get..., then we start to no longer appreciate what used to satisfy us. If this is the case, than you may want to put that $4000 plus the resale value of your current speakers into upgrading your speakers.

Assuming that moving your speakers around doesn't solve your problem, which by the way is the first thing that you should do, then you should consider a speaker with a deeper bass response than the 45hz of your current speakers, which is actually on the lean side as mentioned above. You will also get much better sound-staging, if you go up their speaker line.

Here are some Articles on Speaker Placement:

http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/speakerplacement.html

http://www.thielaudio.com/THIEL_Site05/PDF_files/PDF_owner_info/CS3_7ownerinfo.pdf

Rich

Not denying the importance of careful speaker placement, I would suggest not to underestimate what the source can do. Try listen to a (thoroughly burned-in) Accuphase DP500 and check out soundstage depth and intrument color (others like new Esoteric SA50, Ayre CX7MP or Modwright Transporter might provide a similar ticket, would love to try those). Such a machine will most probably lift a system's musicmaking above timberline.. at least i can say it did in mine, compared to already quite or very fine units like Lavry or Benchmark DACs or AA Capitole, or Transporter.

It may not be as sexy looking as some other pieces, but I still do not think it is the CD player in of itself. When I heard it on a well matched properly set up system, it did fantastically in regards to soundstage and muscle/impact.

You might perhaps pull more detail out of a higher end player were that your problem, but that's not what I'm reading.

Sometimes it can be hard to get a good soundstage without introducing leanness, especially if speakers must be moved far away from wall to achieve the soundstage.

If you can't get the right balance between soundstage and leanless with any single speaker placement, then I would consider looking at how the CD output impedance matches to the amp input impedance and also perhaps look at a more powerful amp.

The Pathos is a fine piece but may not be able to delver enough juice to accomplish what you want.

More power and perhaps also current will enable you greater freedom in placement for soundstage without introducing leanness.

Sometimes when things are too lean, you just need to introduce more muscle!!! The power amp and how well it drives the speakers is the key to that.

The AMR CD 77 is a truly amazing machine; it also carries a $10,000 retail price tag. If you can find a used one for $4,000, grab it! AMR is now shipping a “scaled down” CDP dubbed the CD 777. This unit will give about 80% of the performance of the 77, and will list (in the U.S. market) in the neighborhood of $4,000 - $4,500. Stay tuned!