Hello Peter,
interesting problem seems to occur. Decreasing quality of signal for the benefit of better sound. I don´t think this is the right way; going this way consequent, it will end up with equalizers, enhancers and other stuff to generate the sound one person likes.
I think the way you went was correct, even for the prize that some recordings do not sound like expected or wanted. I think that an audio reproduction system should accurate reproduce the signal it gets, whether analog or digital (i know this is theory). What you get for this kind of reproduction is a closer step to the music the artist plays, nobody knows which intention the musician had about the sound of his production (take the last Neil young Album, distorted, not very smooth sound) and therefore the music lover "must bare" the bad sound but he gets for the prize of a more realistic music reproduction. And on a good system which is focused on correct timing you`ll forget very fast the bad sound. When both comes together, good sound and good music, well everybody is happy but what is more important and gives you more joy, Music or Sound?
The biggest advantage form Z2 to Z3 was a much better timing and accuracy of music reproduction and I hope this won´t disappear on Z4.

@GerardA
My statement is especially for the argument that digital recorded music sounds better on vinyl. It´s not a statement to the discussion Analog versus Digital. What i wanted to explain is simple that you loose  information on the way from Digital Master to Analog Record and therefore it is less accurate  .

"Even digitally recorded master transcribed to LP still sounds better than CD and that certain quality that I find desirable in LP is still there in those digitally recorded album"
This is often said by people who love the sound of a turntable.
Going back to the technical side: you add overtones and distortion to the signal when you play a record . On the playback process of a record, the stylus is resonating, the record is resonating(remember you can listen to a record without an amplifier and speakers because of the enormous mechanical energy you generate by playing records with a pick up system). These effects lead to this warm analog sound airiness and so on.
The information of a digital master tape must be converted to an analog signal, then you have the pressing of the mother record and from this mother you get the record you can buy for your turntable, all these processes lead to a loss of information not to more information.
Comparing the sound of a turntable to a classical live concert is very interesting, turntables generate their own sound, live music is very unspectacular no extra airiness or transparency. Music is just there.
So we are with this statement on a more interesting point: What is better music reproduction and how important is sound for good music reproduction?

- what do you wanna achieve with this kind of discussion windowsX?

bringing it a little together:

- only reference systems are able to confirm your point of view (100k and above)
- made a test at a dealer where the CD Player won over the PC System, by dynamics and bass reproduction
- a lot of knowledge over Digital music reproduction mixed wild up
- taken only the arguments that increased your point of view, other argument simply ignored
i can go on with this list.

When you go to to experimental physics for example, and you create an experiment, the most important thing is:
does this experiment help me to ealuate the theory  or does it not.

This means i am only allowed changing one simple parameter whe i compare different test setups.
And when i see your test at the dealer and your whole argumentation, sorry , you are lightyears away from serious work.

How do you know that more dynamics (define dynamics), more spacing (more noise?), more bass or less (do you know at which level bass had been recorded, less bass can be more accurate than more bass) are parameters for judging accuracy of reproduction?

I just wanna gentle remind you that the SPDIF specifications that you have to rely on when you build a CD Player
are based on a Digital Standard that is at least 30 years old. And on the cornerpoints of  these specifications no Company can change something.

As i mentioned before, it is impossible getting all the DATA off from a CD with a CD Player, because of the limitations you have in in Time DATA reading.
And again, when you work seriously in science, how will you compare a system that has original DATA and the other has not?
You know that on a CD there are no Audio bits and bytes that contain the Audio Data, there are Digital words and in this words we have Audio DATA, the information of the music track (Time, Track) the information for error recovery and information for the speed of the motor for example. These words have to be read out and the information has to be distributed to the different sections of the CD Player and all this in real time.
Again I respect your listening experience and it is absolute O.K. that your prefer it and everybody here respects it but your argumentation like Peter said leads to nothing.
In Computer based reproduction systems is a potential that is far away from completely understood and it is young to the  30 years i mentioned above. So lets do it positive and constructive to bring it forward to come closer to a real music reproduction.
Best regards
Andreas

Hello WindowsX,
it is interesting to follow your argumentation, but some facts it seems you didn`t have understood. First of all reading DATA out from a CD Player is completely different from ripping DATA from a CD Computer Transport. CD PLayer does in time reading, this means it only gets the DATA when the Laser is on its position, it has no chance to get all the DATA off. Even the cheapest Computer drive can retrieve all the DATA from an Audio Disc, because it has all the time in the world to get the information because it is not time dependent.  So one of the biggest advantages of Hard Disk reproduced Music is, that you have all the Music on your Hard drive and you never have the chance listening to all the bits and bytes onto a CD Player whatever price range it is.
That you love the sound of your High End combination over your experimental set up is something i do respect but it is your individual judgement and has nothing to do with accurate reproduction of music, because you don´t have all the original DATA.
This seems to be a general problem when people judge systems; simple question, what is better sound?
Talk to a professional musicians and tell him about spacing, placing of the musicians on the soundstage, smooth bass and fine treble. He will laugh at your argumentation because all this parameters have nothing to do with music reproduction. So again, when you wanna listen to what the musician "wrote in his story" a CD Player is the wrong instrument. Reading a book where letters and words are missing and then judging it is somewhat difficult 
Andreas