question about "lower" priced CD players/DACs

i think it definitely comes down to your personal preference in presentation; whether a different player will sound better to you is inherently subjective. personally, i wasn't overawed with the oppo as a cd player (although it's fantastic for video), and i preferred the older rega apollo and much older rotel i auditioned it against. however, many other people, whose opinions are just as worthy, think it's great; moreover, if i had listened to the oppo in your setup i might have thought differently. bottom line is you just gotta listen. fwiw, your current transport/dac are both very well-reviewed; consider whether you'd get more significant improvement by changing other components.

If you really want a "lot better sound", don't spend money on your digital front-end. Rather, think about upgrading speakers and/or obtaining top-quality source material. Those are improvements you will *definitely* hear...

-RW-

Are you going to use it as a CD player, CD transport and DAC or are you going to use it solely as a Transport? I've heard the Oppo unit and it was decent. However, I did not hear it using it as a transport only into a DAC. or compared to other Transport DAC combinations. So, my advice is to go to a decent store and ask if they would let you take it home for an in-home audition or if they won't, find a friend with one and borrow your friends unit before purchasing it. I don't know the quality of your existing DAC, but seriously, that would be my first path for upgrade. I have auditioned/compared several CD/DVD players as transports only and there are differences, so keep that in mind, however, the biggest difference will be with the DAC. this is a serious piece of equipment and should be considered carefully. the newer DACs are catering to the computer and computer sound community and they are not really high-end quality. The analog portion should be just as good or better than any high-end pre-amp and the power supply must be excellent. The light weight, DACs out there are big on digital and soft on analog and power supply, which is a serious mistake.

enjoy

My CD player is close to 20 years old. I'm thinking about buying a new CD player to replace it. hadn't really given a lot of thought yet to using my old CD player as a transport into a new DAC because of the age of the CD player. Minorl, you and Marakanetz both recommend focusing on the DAC part of the equation.

How do I determine which DACs are not what you call "light weight"? I am on a budget, and things like $5000 DACs are not an option for me.

Rlwainwright, my speakers are Magneplanar MG-IIIa's - 3-way planar speakers with a ribbon tweeter. They have been completely rebuilt by Magnepan within the last year. The MG-IIIa is the grandfather of the Magneplanar MG3.7.

Replacing them with the latest, greatest MG3.7 would cost around $6000(!).

I like the Magneplanar sound a lot so plan to stick with them.