Will a DAC mellow Denon DCM 360

Ehider: Does the Aiwa have an RCA digital out? Or what outputs does it have? Also what DACS did your group have good results with?

Thanks Ehider. Very interesting. Didn't an industry publication follow up on the findings of your gruop? Seems like I read that somewhere, maybe at AA.

Dark: Search the forum under "entry level" without the word and. Ehider is referring to the XC-35M now discontinued but still available online. I just saw one for $149.00 new when I searched the web with "xc-35m". I beleive that the group was also using a homebrew DAC which is why I asked what other DAC's they tried it with. My wife would love to have a multi player and for the price I would pick one up if it worked well with my Bel Canto. The input specs were not available at Aiwa's web site.

Hi Dark: For free, you can try mixing your DIY IC's and the Radio shack Gold's. Try different ones in-between the preamp/power and the source/preamp. This may eliminate some of the glare that you are experiencing. You can also try hanging a blanket or tablecloth on the wall behind your speakers or work some more with speaker placement. I usually level my speakers (using a level) and then work with small degrees of tilt to adjust the sound. This seems to have almost as much effect (on the mid and HF's) as raising or lowering the speakers. I also have a moderately priced system and know where you are coming from. If better recorded CD's sound good at least you have that much:-) I have added some things to my system that have helped reduce glare as well as improving other areas of the sound. These additions are Vibrapods under the CD Player for $24.00 (follow Craigs instructions at Vibrapod), an updated power cord for the CD player (Harmonic Tech. Pro 11 for $125.00 used), HT Truthlink IC also for $125.00 used (really helps with poorly engineered CD's and sounds great on the good ones) and also a Monster HTS power conditioner (discounted to $125.00 new on line (you may not require power conditioning, I live in a congested area and benefit from it). The Vibrapods and the PC were the biggest improvements in my system and I started out with the Pods, again just a $24.00 investment plus a scrap of MDF, or use Maple if you happen to have a spare cutting board around the house. I am now adding a better DAC to my CAL player but am glad that I started off with the inexpensive basic tweaks that are now out of the way. I have wanted to try the DIY cables, but am always confused by the on-line instructions. Good luck.

PS: Sorry for not addressing the DAC question itself, but since I am not familiar with the sound of the DAC in your player I cannot say yes or no. As mentioned above when you purchase at a good used price you can resell with out losing $$$ on most items. In addition to the Truthlink IC's that I mention above I also use Silver IC's from Homegrown Audio with good results, this is just to say that the little things that I have done really did put a dent in the glare that I was experiencing as I no longer have to tame it with IC's for "most" recordings.

Dark: There are a lot of good players in the price range that you are looking at. For example: Audio Refinement Complete (used), Cambridge 500 (new), CAL Icon MkII (used -I own this) and the CAL 5 changer (used). Check out as many as possible. I also listened to the Rotel 970 before it was discontinued and found it to be a little smoother than its replacement the 971. A nice thing about using a player as a transport (in the future) is that if you decide to go for any DAC mods that become available you can still play music on the player while the DAC is off to the factory. There is also a lot of info on previous threads in regard to inexpensive but good CD players, I guess just search "CD player".