Think of it like this, you play a cd on a PS3 and the sound is kind of bunched together in a mash,you hear the instruments but there is no sense of depth or width to the music and you cannot place the musicians anywhere in relation to each other.Now with a good quality cd player you will have a strong soundstage, meaning you can pick out each instrument easily and have a sense where the instrument is in relation to the other players, both width and depth and you will hear things that you did not know were there, musically that is.Of course the rest of your system needs to be as good as your cd player, good system balance is essential.
There are players out there that would make a PS3 sound like a nail drug across a chalk board.

bill