DAC or new player ?

DAC with computer as a transport. The Paradisea from MHDT Labs sells for under $500, nice tube buffer DAC. I'll probably never buy another CD player.

Tobias is right. We are at the beginning of a new era of digital music and it is nonsense to buy a dedicated cd-player. Get one good dac (actually, such like an apogee mini dac, or even at half price of that a TC konnekt 8 or Edirol UA 101) allows you to have a very well balanced dac, adc (dont forget: these are studio gears and not voiced to be a coloured niche products for serving one particular taste packed into a nice box to please your eye. A TEAC VRDS and old Sony ES player as transport would nicely complement such a gear.

Ahaju, I am sure I must be right--thank you--but I did not say it was nonsense to buy a dedicated CD player. I have not compared my setup with an equivalently-priced CD player of recent design (I would be interested in the latest TOTL Shanling, for example). Nor have I subbed my computer into my system to compare it with my transport. So I can't say which setup produces the best sound, and I would need to know that in order to make my choice.

What I did say was that you don't need to spend multiple thousands to get a very satisfying DAC these days, especially if you tweak it nicely. OTOH if you have the bucks you can do better sound-wise. You have a very nice DAC and I would love to compare your source with my own.

Thanks for all that input but can someone tell me where I can find exactly what you are discribing;make,model #,approx price? And also where they can be found?

Konky, we're mentioning a lot of things : one-box players, external DACs, transports. You will have to do most of your own leg work searching.

If you're interested in a transport like mine, there's one up for sale (with a matching DAC) here now. Enter "Esoteric" in the search field on the AudiogoN home page and you'll find it in the list. Please don't think that just because I use one, that's what you should get! Remember this is older gear. It will need maintenance and repair sooner than new stuff, and sometimes parts are not available.

Search the archives here and at Audio Asylum for transports and DACs that people think well of. An Apogee Mini-DAC with USB will cost from $600 used. Keep watching here and on eBay for availability and pricing info. Also, frankly, the Cambridge 840 is a good player. You could do a lot worse than just get that. Get a listen to it! Mdconnelly has a good suggestion up there.