Is a Meridian 598 a great music CD player?

I traded in my 598 as I just found it too uninvolving. Took a good hour warm up to sound okay and 2 hours to sound it's best, which still left too much to be desired (for me). There was just too much missing. My associate at work also bought one with me, and he never cared for it either. I did pay near $4k new, so at $1,200, I may have like it alot more. I used Tara Labs The One Balanced, and Shunyata Tapan Helix Digital PC, Walker Valid Points, so it was in a pretty decent environment.

Originally the Musical Fidelity kW SACD player, which blew away the Meridian in all aspects except transport too finceky. Played only 1 or 2 SACD's and failed on quite a few redbooks. It was also very noisey. (The transports on Musical Fidelity gear is very poor). When it did play, it sang. Traded that in last December for the Esoteric X03-SE and have been absolutely thrilled.