CDS1 vs CDX/XPS and 82/Super ---> The magical 52

For all of who are curious I have switched from a CDX/XPS to the CDS1. The CDS has a very analogue sound which is very interesting after normalizing myself to the digital sound. The CDX seemed to put a glaze ontop of the signal that emphasized or highlighted each instrument. With the CDS the sounds seem to melt the instruments together. It actually becomes psychologically difficult to listen to the individual instruments. The CDX has a tree focus and CDS has a forest focus. I also notice when recording fail they fail in different ways. The CDX would present bad recordings as hard and sharp on the high end. The CDS shows bad recordings as darker and more muffled but never harsh.

The magic of the CDS1 is how it handles all quality levels of CDs. With the CDX/XPS I typically blamed the recording as the problem. The CDS1 has really brought up the quality of poorer recorded CDs. I am now lost in the 50's jazz CDs which were almost not listenable on the
CDX/XPS. With the CDX/XPS about 20% of my CDs sounded great, 70% OK and 10% barely listenable. With CDS1 about 60% sound great and 40% sound OK.

Some people have stated that the CDS1 = CDX/XPS. This could be explained by:

1. The unit wasn't warmed up. It took 2-3 weeks for mine to warm up and finally stabalize. During this time the character changed quite dramatically.
2. The CDPS needed recapping. My unit was 9 years old and had variable performance at first. I did a A/B comparison with not being recapped and they were very similar.Within 5 seconds of turning off the XPS power supply the performance of the CDS jumped back into magical heights. I knew it needed recapping.

My motivation for the CDS1 was my interest in the 52. With only interested in spending 5K it was either a CDS2 or a 52. I was a little scared to move to the 52 with the CDX/XPS as I know I would be pushed to the CDS2. The CDS1 is much better than the CDX/XPS and much closer to the CDS2 but with more of a PRaT emphasis and with NOTHING negative. The CDS2 is prettier sounding but I was put off with it's laid back sound. The CDS2 brought good sounding CDs to new heights but made some CDs sound uninteresting to me.

82/Super ---> 52
I also upgraded from a 82/Super to a 52. The 52 is absolute magic! It doesn't just bring out
better clarity as some have claimed. It really gets the dynamics and color right. It's not
just the overall dynamics but the relative color and dynamics between instruments. I previously
posted there were insignificant differences between the CDS2 and the CDX/XPS. This is true with the 82/Super but with the 52 I finally heard the negatives everyone wrote to me about the CDX/XPS. The 82/Super masked them actually beautifully and in my opinion the CDX/XPS is the perfect source until you face the 52.