What is the affect of cd player?

I should note that I bought a Cambridge 840C, and I found it to be very sensitive to interconnects. The ICs my previous CDP favored were crap with the Cambridge, I mean really bad. Tried something else, and it improved dramatically, went from "guess I'm gonna sell this thing" to "Damn! It's a keeper".

So as somebody mentioned you could try playing with interconnects first. I found success with Zu Varial XLRs, others have reported good results with Cardas Golden Reference, and Mapleshade ribbons. The one my Cambridge hated was Cardas Neutral Reference.

Missioncoonery:

"I'll take great speakers in an average system all day long.."

I agree. Being neither a fat inheritance/trust fund child, or an orthopedic surgeon, most of my system dollars went into the speakers.

I agree, Bygolly. I started with my speakers. But my question is 'just how much does the cd player affect the sound in the whole system.? Would it improve y0ur sound if you moved up a couple of notches higher?

>Based on the reviews I have read, you would have to spend over $5,000 to better the Cambridge 840C<

Don't believe everything you read. I have heard that player and my lowly TRL modified Sony universal player cleaned it's clock. I also heard a BAT and a Granite Audio seedee player in the same session that were better.

Shakey

I upgraded from a Rotel 1072 ($700) to a Linn Majik ($3,500).

I have to go from memory, as I did not do a direct A/B comparision. I do like the Linn better, but is it 5 times better as reflected in the price? Probably not, but that's not a complaint. I'd say the Linn is more natural sounding. But the Rotel is an excellent player, and has a pretty good resale value, and used ones sell quickly, so I'd say that it is becoming something of a classic, at least for the money.

But I do think you can get better sound with a higher $$$ CD player. However, as noted above your Cambridge has received outstanding reviews, and you'd probably have to spend quite a lot of $$$ to upgrade.