My head hurts....

"Begin with what you have now. it might surprise you what can be done with it."

Absolutely. try what you have before convincing yourself it ain't any good. You might be surprised.

You can and with the rate at which this technology is evolving, probably will always upgrade later.

I'm in the same boat. . .I've made the decision to build a computer based system feeding an external DAC.

Stand alone DACs are becoming the standard for digital music replay including computer and internet radio.
I'd keep your universal player and get a DAC. You can try other transports, computer, etc.

I was thinking of getting a better source or modding my Oppo and after research felt that a DAC was the most flexable option. I can upgrade to BluRay later and still have great music reproduction. I don't have to look for the best source in my price range. The DAC gives me almost state of the art no matter which way I go.

I just started a music server by enabling media sharing in Windows Media Player in Vista on a laptop. IT works very nicely. The Windows Media Player interface for ripping CDs to disk is very fast . I ripped the 5 CD Ken Burns JAzz CD set yesterday in about 30 minutes.

Once the song is ripped it is categorized by artist, album, and genre. I can then select to play a specific song, album, or set of songs by an artist or in a genre using the Roku Soundbridge on my system.

Last night I had several dozen classic jazz tunes playing randomly on my system via Wifi conenction to my Vista PC for several hours. Sound quality is very good out of the can.

I do have a new outboard DAC coming though in order to try something different and maybe even better. But the sound as is is quite competitive already.

Sweet......

wow lot's of responses i'm glad i'm not into this dilemna alone
Thanks to all who have responded