Purist aqueous vs Venustas IC

The cheaper Museus does have that warmth that the Rotel CD player can benefit. I would also look at the Museus powercord. They do wonders as well for neutral sounding components like your Rotel CD player.
GOOD Luck

IMO your CD player should cost at least four times that of your interconnects. It seems you might be heading in the other direction.

Change the CDP, or look at other components too. What is the source of your discontent?

I go front to back as mmuch as possible. Once I land on a source, I simply go from there. PCs, ICs, etc.

Doesn't sound to me like you have settled on a CDP yet.

I'm prone to getting as much of utterly revealing and resolute while still being listenable or musical, if you will, in any source unit I'll buy.

The matching or mismatching thereafter is to what lays downstream and my own preffs for the end result... as I'm not a dead neutral 100%er sort.

It is all a mix to be sure. Cables do have an effect, but I tend to use them to enhance rather than to ameliorate or cover up what is errant there... now, anyhow. This cabling thing gets loads easier when the components are better, and better matched IMO.

Try a couple more CDPs. Money spent well there will sure pay dividends later on.

Agree with Blindjim, look at the cdp first. On the other hand your present cdp - which one is it btw? - may actually have the sonic character you prefer and may have been carefully chosen in that respect? So before you decide to change, have you already tried Venustas with your cdp or would you have an opportunity to audition? Remember: venustas = "beauty", that name tells quite precisely what you should expect. To exemplify this, I use Venustas with ss amps and Aqueous Anniversary with 300B's.

Another observation: sometimes you see Venustas in their old "robe" on the used market (white labels showing cable direction on both ends, black cable endings instead of the present blue and red ones, no difference in cable architecture if I understood Jim Aud correctly; but they will be somewhat older of course). These tended to change hands at the approximate price level of Aqeous Anniversary. That way, you might get out largely neutral from a financial point of view. Just an idea.