Previous poster "Greg" hooked a typically bright-sounding budget CD player to rather bright electronics and notoriously bright and "forward" sounding speakers -no wonder his doggy left home! Like him I found the CDC665 way too harsh in the treble, although the effect seemed to diminish after about 30 hours burn-in through a NAD 314 and Cambridge Soundworks Model 6s Since it was a gift from my kids I could not tactfully return it and tried a switch from Canare interconnects to much duller-sounding Audioquest turquoise. Voila! Miles' high notes on "Kind of Blue" were once again liquid and pleasureable. The CDC665 is well-worth tweaking, since tight bass and excellent imaging are also among it's characteristics, as well as the unusually full complement of features.

I have to admit that the Yamaha 665 is an attractive unit. I currently own the RX-V 793 from Yamaha and they carry many of the same characteristics which brings forth a sleek and elegant design. However, I have found that through headphones and though my Klipsh 10.5's this setup is extremely harsh. I have read reviews about the 655 leaving a ringing effect in the ears after about a 1/2 hour of use. Well, sad to say, this unit had the same effect after less time with low volume levels. I am going to return the unit and continiue to use an old Sony CDP-c322m which I have owned since 1993. It was originally part of a bookshelf system and I find that its reproduction of Jazz, classical, blues, and rock music is clearly more enjoyable through my set-up. The only extra conveniences that the Yamaha offered over the Sony was the Optical output and the PlayXchange. I will not sacrifice sound performance for these features, therfore I will elect to stick with the older Sony for now.