HELP I need alot of audio advice....

My advice to you is to change your CD/DVD player or go CD and DVD player seperately. What accessories do you have like cables and interconnect? What is your budget? Please give more information.

1 dump the Apex ASAP get a good new player like the sony 555 combo unit, or a 9000 at least or get seperates like a Rega Planet. It depends on what you want to spend. I would try a Nad PP1 phono section. The Denon one may not be too great. To really offer advise you have to give a budget.

The Apex is not what you want for music to shine in your system, I agree with Highend and Weiserb, upgrade it first with something better for music.

Very few DVD players are tolerable for CD playback, and even fewer are actually good. The handful of *really* good ones cost well north of $2K. Unless you're prepared to spend that, get a separate CDP for sure.

I'm not really familiar enough with the rest of your gear to discuss it. Hopefully it's all better than the Apex, which is definitely a weak link.

Like the others said, some idea of budget would help, as would knowing the kind of music you like. Most A'goners are music lovers first and HT users second, if at all. You're in the right place, but be prepared for some major sticker shock from some of the advice you may receive!

You don't need a lot of advice--you've chosen your equipment very well, with only one obvious exception. Apex is an off-brand with a poor reputation. A name-brand DVD players (Sony, Pioneer, etc.) will serve you much better.

The other thing you shuld do is play around a little with speaker positioning--it can make a bigger difference than changing anything in your system (the Apex excepted).