wsmatau: how old are the 300 cd's you have? most cd's released in the past couple of years are a good deal better sounding than those from the beginnings of the medium. to be sure, there are wide variations in sound quality among discs but few are now being produced that are simply non-listenable. my cd collection numbers some 2000+. of these, there are maybe 100 that i listen to frequently. few of the remaining 1900 or so are painful to my ears; they're just not among my faves. i would guess that your system if thus far incomplete. once you find the right combo of cables/interconnects, etc., i bet you'll find you still want to listen to most of the 290 discs in your collection that you now beleive have been degraded by a "revealing" system. put another way, don't confuse distortion with resolution.
Do I have to buy all new CDs?
OK, I know the question is fecetious, But I ffel like my collection of over 300 CDs went down to about 10 that still seem worth listening to. I am new to the audiophile game, so I started with Martin Logan SL-3s and a Sunfire amp. I guess I just didn't believe how revealing they really would be. I should have guessed when I immediately realized the differences in recording quality on the two Clapton CDs I use to audition speakers. This thread has become a complaint. For future reference is there any way to identify high quality recordings before I buy?