CD has laid back and uninvolving sound

Some of it is inherent in the nature of the two mediums. I currently have more money in my CD player than in my LP playback but it lacks something that the LP has. Some don't notice it or attribute it to distortion or surface noise. But I think the current CD system has certain deficiencies that you are not going to be able to correct, LP just has certain advantages;I enjoy CD very much, but LP is more real, pops and all. That said, not all DACs are equal. The TriVista 21 I use is more upfront without being bright than my previous decoders. They float around at a price that you can buy and try without the prospect of taking much loss. Also they can be upgraded to even higher levels of performance. [I haven't yet done this]. They are a hybrid design.

I have been using various damping devices for decades but only recently have I become aware of what the newer types could do. Using 3 small cones under a component can transform the sound. The products I use, Star Sound, have a theory that it is of prime importance to provide a direct path for vibrations to be transferred quickly out of the system to the floor. There is apparently something to this as a recent test of a completely different product found that components siting on it sounded better when they were physically touching the metal pole supporting the system. Be that as it may, the effect is considerable. But not all the cones I have used sounded the same, the Mapleshade are good in many ways but their very large size seems to make the vibration transfer slower. I would suggest to anyone that the purchase of one set of top quality cones is a worthwhile investment to see how they work in your system. But be patient, they need to settle in. I know, this does not seem logical but it appears to be true. Also, they do not give to same result on each component . Sometimes it can provide too much dampening. But overall it can provide a major step up in performance. I bought a rack for my whole system that has them built in and the result is even better. There are many other systems on the market I have not tried, so I cannot say if they would give comparable results. But in any case vibration removal appears to be even more important than we had thought. Do not ignore maple blocks, they give good results also.