Well chesseroo
Everything tends to sound good in my living room, my digestion is fine, the same system with an 8 year old JVC CD changer sounded wonderful, and even better with the Ah! The only variable was the Cambridge D500SE. I made my conclusions, you are of course free to make your own. I immediately sold the Cambridge unit and am happy with the Ah!/ASL/Michaura combination.
The only other components were the speaker wires (Mapleshade Clearview Double Golden Helix Plus), and the Maple Audio Ambience interconnects. I know there is a division among gurus as to whether cabling makes a difference.
In any case, the Cambridge receives good reviews. Instead of saying that the Cambridge stinks, I suggested that maybe it just didn't get along with the other components in my system.
My description of the Cambridge, blowsy, loose bass, congested mids ... etc. is how I heard it and those are the words which came closest to describing what I heard at the time.
Not that I need to say anything more on the subject, but I sat some friends down, including a golden eared acoustic guitar player, played my favorite test CDs (Getz/Jobim, Loreena McKennett, etc.), did not lead them ("sounds terrible doesn't it?" - would be leading)and each agreed, that particular Cambridge just did not reproduce music very well.
So, Chesseroo, I don't know what put your nose out of joint, the idea that a CDP can have the described effect on music reproduction, or my choice of words, or the idea that components may simply not get along very well. In any case, this is my take on it. You're entitled to your own.
