pockits - I am not trying to be a jerk here, but one thing you might want to consider, and it might be a better investment than a new CD player, is some room correction. (I am assuming, of course, that the speakers have to stay in that corner and are less than a foot from the shelf on the right side, with that rack right between the two speakers and next to them.) Those speakers deserve quite a bit more, and since the room is perhaps the most important factor in sound quality, that's where I would spend the money. There are a few companies that make good room correction software and hardware -- check out the Lyngdorf RP-1, or even their preamp.