A good source is well, a good source, but you don't have to pay alot to get it. The Cd's through your DVD player could have been some bad cd's, then again the speakers or the other components in the system could have been messing with the signal.
I have a samsung DVD player that has the same DAC chips in it that are in the recent $100 or less dvd players out there now. I am sure they would sound as good as this 5 year old $400 one I bought. I had a Sony that didn't sound very good back then and it was new, as well. It would freeze up on layer changes on DVDs, so took it back, bought this Samsung and instantly heard much improved sound quality at much less volume on the receiver.
The higher the bit rate of the MP3s the better they will sound but I find anything over 128 to be very acceptable.
