For all who have contributed your ideas, thank you for your time. This has definately been
a learning experience, especially the info on the DAC's.

I've been doing some research, and it looks like the DVD and CD players I have are
definately lacking in quality. It would seem my receiver and speakers are much better
than the CD and DVD player, and are fairly newer technology. Some would probably
disagree, but there have been lots of good reviews on both the speakers (Polk RTi10's),
and receiver (Marantz SR5600 w/90wpc) I'm running. While not the best, they should be
sufficient enought to do a good job (rebuttals welcome)!

So now we turn to the sources, and as most of you have mentioned, are the point where it
all starts. Through researching and reading everyones posts, I've come to realize that the
Sony DVD/CD and Pioneer CD player don't have what it takes to reproduce the quality
sound 'm looking for. While researching the specs on the DVD/CD player (via internet and the manual that came with it), I couldn't find any mention of the type of DAC being used.

That being said, I'm going to switch to the analog outputs and try the "bypass" or "direct"
suggestion on my DVD/CD player just to see if there's any difference, but I'm not too optomistic.

Moving forward, most of you have suggested either upgrading to an external DAC, or
purchasing a better CD or DVD/CD player. Having said that, I could use some input on
what direction to move. I know trying to improve the Pioneer is a waste of time since it
only has analog outputs and is so old. But I'd like to know if just adding a better DAC to
the DVD/CD will help? Do you need a quality reading mechanism/head/whatever reads
the DVD/CD, or can you add a good external DAC to the inferior quality player and still
get significantly better sound?

And if I do need to purchase a new DVD, CD, or DVD/CD player, which combination
should I consider? There seens to be some good DVD/CD players out there like the
Marantz DV7600 DVD player for not a lot of $$$.

Any Ideas? Thanks!