Why does the recording sound better?

Stringreen,

"I found that a burned CD always sounds better than the original....don't know why - perhaps less jitter"

There are a lot of people that have the same opinion. How are you burning your CD's? For example, are you recording from a TT to a CD burner or are you just coping a CD? Depending on how you go about making CD, I may be able to answer your question as to why your burned copies sound better.

"Now here's the kicker, I loaded the CD to my I-Pod (lossless)and played through my Wadia IDock 171I through the Digital inputs on my Cambridge CDP mentioned above. I'm at a bit of a loss as to why a recording may sound better than the original, any thoughts? I should mention I just received my CDP back from repair, which included a new transport, caps and firmware 1.2."

You have your answer right there. There are 2 issues. 1. You may have to break in you CDP again along with any cables attached to it. 2. The fact that you are playing the recording back on completely different equipment is probably the reason it sounds different. I've owned digital equipment from both Wadia and Cambridge. Both companies make great sounding gear. That said, you couldn't have picked 2 brands that sound more different from each other. Overall, like you, I prefer Wadia to Cambridge myself.