Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo How much SQ difference does CD player make ?

When I first set up the M2s one of my concerns was a bit of an edgy distorted sound on upper midrange. First noticed it when playing at moderately high volumes and thought it might be clipping, but if I listened carefully it was there at lower volumes as well. Urk.. maybe I clipped the amp and damaged the tweeters...

M60s arrive, same distortion. Never cranked the volume up high enough to have even risked clipping so no chance that I damaged the tweeters. Whew, didn't damage the M2s after all.

Noticed that I didn't seem to hear the same distortion when playing FM or DVDs with a good music content, although I don't have enough DVDs with music to be sure.

Just tried an experiment -- pulled one of the CDs with the most obvious distortion (Genesis / Trick of the Tail) and stuck it in my DVD player. Not only was the distortion largely gone but the sound was noticeably different -- a bit less bass with the DVD player and maybe a bit smoother in the midrange.

Does this make any sense ? I'm using analog connections for both players so I guess the DACs and analog circuitry on the players could be making this much difference...

Equipment :

Amplifier - HK3270 stereo receiver
CD player - Kenwood CD-324M changer
DVD player - Sony DVP-NS315

Any input appreciated. I'm particularly interested in this because with the CD player I like the sound of the M2s over the M60s, but when I play CDs on the DVD player the M60 sound is closer to what I liked about the M2 sound...

Thanks,
JB