Hi Jimmy: Sorry for the "curt" post, I was in a bad mood yesterday. Not being able to audition players is a real drag, as most of them have quite different sounds. My general recommendation in your price range is a used CAL Icon MkII with or without the Power Boss upgrade (which adds more detail). It is old technology that still sounds very good in that the players have ample bass and smooth highs. They are also very sturdy and make good transports if you decide to add an external DAC later on at some point. The CALs do benefit from a better power cord and the $50 Absolute PC is a good match. I now use a MKII in combination with a Bel Canto DAC 1.1, but find that it still holds up very well, as a stand alone unit, with the under $2K (retail) players out there. There is a search feature on the first page of the forums (at the bottom of the page) which will allow you to gather a lot of info on players in your price range. Maybe try "CD and player" and just sort through them. A lot of people also seem to like the Ah! Tjoeb (which will allow you to add a little tube warmth to your setup, on the cheap), but my only experience was with the 99 model (two models ago), which did not cut the mustard with me do to some tonality problems that I felt that it had. I also kind of like the sound of the CD6 that you use. Have you tried any cheap isolation tweaks with it (like Vibrapods and a cutting board or a sheet of MDF)? This might be another option for as little as $25 or so and may be all that you need. Try searching "isolation" and "platforms" as well.
