What is the affect of cd player?

You can have a great source (upstream) and a downstream that isn't it's equal and you won't know how good the source is or how poor the downstream is. You can't have a great downstream and a poor source, it's short comings will be evident immediately so I think you should stay downstream until you find the Cambridge isn't doing the job, you'll know when the time has come!!!

Ill take great speakers in an average system..all day long..

I should note that I bought a Cambridge 840C, and I found it to be very sensitive to interconnects. The ICs my previous CDP favored were crap with the Cambridge, I mean really bad. Tried something else, and it improved dramatically, went from "guess I'm gonna sell this thing" to "Damn! It's a keeper".

So as somebody mentioned you could try playing with interconnects first. I found success with Zu Varial XLRs, others have reported good results with Cardas Golden Reference, and Mapleshade ribbons. The one my Cambridge hated was Cardas Neutral Reference.

Missioncoonery:

"I'll take great speakers in an average system all day long.."

I agree. Being neither a fat inheritance/trust fund child, or an orthopedic surgeon, most of my system dollars went into the speakers.

I agree, Bygolly. I started with my speakers. But my question is 'just how much does the cd player affect the sound in the whole system.? Would it improve y0ur sound if you moved up a couple of notches higher?