My head hurts....

BTW even though your time frame has elapsed, CDPs do fail. Lasers and alignment mostly.

the major nod here is the typical one.... with the same dollar figure, one can step well up in performance buying used over buying new.

Another consideration is that changes for the better in the digital world are occurring rapidly. Keeping eyes wide open here however, their build quality isn't, generally speaking.

Musicfile,
I must state once again to really consider an outboard dac with a computer or cheap DVD player as your transport. This is the future.
You can get state of the art digital playback for cheaper than a high end cd player. More and more companys are offering them...Benchmark, PS Audio, Bryston, Cambridge Audio, Maonarchy, Consonace, Musical Fidelity, Bel Canto to name a few. This doesn't even include the high end companies DACs.
I use a DAC w/ a tube power amp for a sound with few compromises, whether it is music or movies. It would cost a lot more to have this level of performance if I had to by a seperate CD player, DVD player, preamp, power amp, and cabling.

Mjcmt said:
"Musicfile,
I must state once again to really consider an outboard dac with a computer or cheap DVD player as your transport. This is the future."

I concur with Mjcmt. Some of us may not want a computer in the listening space, but wired and wireless interfaces are making remote connections not only practical but also audiophile standard.

Musicfile has a decent CDP that can be used as a transport with the best DAC that he can afford. With a good DAC, he'll almost certainly hear a major improvement. Hopefully he'll be able to audition a few candidates in his system. In my case, using a baseline Oppo as a universal transport or even an iPod/Wadia interface and feeding it to my Playback Designs' MPS-5 yields an end signal with the Oppo that almost equals playback throught he PD's Esoteric transport. The iPod/Wadia actually equals the CD playback through the PD. The improvement of the Oppo is substantial and easily heard.

So, the DAC is critical and can (should) upgrade all the digital inputs of your system. Look for a DAC that includes digital inputs in several formats and reclocks the source. Listen to DACs with upsampling schemes and decide if you want that or not. (I love that in mine, but it's ends up being a very expensive machine).

Dave

Musicfile,

If your still out there and looking, do the DAC thing!

I'm actually doing the vinyl thing
Will catch up with the Digital thing later