I have had brightness in my playback system, the source of which has always eluded me. I found it - the CDRW700. If you have one of these, I'd recommend leaving it powered up all the time. The brightness goes away and the soundstage is much more full after 5-6 days.
After two weeks it sounds like a different machine. I have a Pioneer Elite multi-format player on loan and for CD playback, the CDRW700 sounds very close to the Pioneer that costs 3x as much. The difference is apparent whether I use the outboard DAC or not and the improvement is not subtle.
Anyone else experience this? Cheepest upgrade yet.