Many CD was mastered out of the absolute phase, which is why some sound thin, flat, and lacking bass and dynamics. I’ve never purchased a preamp without the ability to invert phase, even some preamps and amps do not match in the same phase using XLR’s some designs use pin 2 - others pin + and some preamps send the signal out of phase even with RCA only outputs. In my current preamp I can hit the phase button and within seconds know which is proper, the other night 5 CDs in a row needed the phase reversed, and Vinyl suffers also, there was a great book written years ago called the wood effect and it was all about the negative impact of your system not being in proper phase and recordings. As far as CD players go, I always stick with a company that builds them from the ground up, every OEM builder and they are audiophile names I’ve had issues with. Marantz, Esoteric, and Luxman reference gear is superb, I’ve owned 3 Esoterics, 2 Luxman’s, 2 Marantz, and 4 Sony’s and they are still in use today from owners who purchased them from me. The early Sony’s like 707ES, XA707ES, and others were working 20 years later and never had an OEM design meaning parts used from various sources and the name put on the unit, The list is many if they are not from Japan, and a company like Playback Design, Meitner, a just a few others. This is not to say others cannot have issues they can of course, but nothing like one build piece mill OEM parts. I still buy well-recorded CDs and I grew up on vinyl. Don’t miss it at all, but I did like the artwork on the large covers, I miss that. I have 1,200 CDs and Boxsets and all sound good to really good, and that is a better ratio than the vast LP collection I had till I sold them in the early 90s. Then I never looked back, and today many of my recordings will never be on LP. If you got a phase button you are so blessed so use it to check every recording, your ear will learn when is correct, imaging will become more solid between the speakers, bass will have more impact and vocal will have more body. Some recordings are truly night and day better.
