The choice of the right source is the next step.  Analog is an extremely complicated and fun to deal with issue and should be evaluated separately.  Therefore I would prefer to concentrate on the Digital Front-End.  The choice of a CD player (and DAC) can be evaluated in two steps:

- The players performance in attaining the fundamentals, such as the soundstage width and depth, micro detail, focus, liquidity  (opposing to harshness & dryness) and low-level detail are critical. These are the fundamentals that the CD player should attain within her price range. .  This is the floor planning stage of the apartment.

- The second criteria depends on the taste of the audiophile. The interior design of the apartment already has started at this stage. Some prefer extra warmth, some would live in extreme liquidity and smoothness, some other would focus more to holography and are not too demanding in others. Some would love to have the extreme micro-detail at the expense of an analytical performance. And some – like myself – would aim to achieve a  life-like performance with the robust combination of the above aspects .If you decide to go all the way in Top-End, then the source selection is very – very critical. In summary, a system may only perform within the limits of the source, therefore extensive listening tests are important to understand the fundamental performance and general character of the player.