Good CD player vs. Transport and DAC

B_limo, my experience with 32 bit DACs is that they are holistically superior. There may be some extreme 24 bit players/DACS which compete well, but typically the 32 bit players/DACs have cleaned up in terms of superior performance.

I encourage you to read all my articles pertaining to Opamp rolling the EE DAC and DAC Plus, especially the article detailing discrete Opamp rolling the DAC Plus. But there are many favorites out there, and you'll find no shortage of enthusiasm for them.

At some point I would expect there will come along a DAC which is so profoundly superior to the EE Minimax Plus that I may find it worthy of giving up the discrete Opamp rolling. Just when you think you have the ideal system/methodology something else comes along and wows. But I'm having a lot of fun with this setup currently.

Blimo - One quick related piece of advice I have is to use shielded AC cables on your transport & DAC wherever possible. It makes a difference. Note that specialists like Chris VenHaus of VH Audio advocate use of shielded cables on digital equipment, so the experts agree.

The industry has gone back and forth on what is best. In the early 90s, the outboard DAC was "the best". The by the late 90s, sperate DACs kind of died off. The by the mid 00s, they made a comeback, but a much higher price.

This gets way too techinical and could fill up volumns, but if you or connecting a transport to a DAC using the lowley SPDIF standard, you will never really get anywhere, because this only allow for the signal to go on way and does not allow the DAC to talk back to the transport. This has somethng to do with timing and jitter errors and data clocking....needs to be explained a million times by someone else :)

My head is in the cloud still after reading this post. Thank you all for your input. :) by the way!!
Ok. Assuming I have a great outboard Dac and want to invest in a CD transport. I know some of you rolling your eyes right now.....lol. I am a big fan of old tech and have found CDs sound great if the recording jives. 

Below is taken directly from the Cambridge Audio website:
Inside most transports, you’ll find:

• A transformer for power
• A laser to read the information from a disc
• A motor to spin the CD at the right speed for the laser
• A servo that operates the motor for how fast the CD spins under the laser
• A CD tray to carefully align the disc with the motor and the laser
• A digital output.

Correct me if I am wrong! Base on this information above, a CD transport doesn't have anything to do with the built-in clock, recock, converting the digital signal to Analog etc...purely carries digital signal to the Dac for processing...
1. Wouldn't it make sense to purchase a  decent unit without breaking one's bank account?
2. Why is it the more costly one such as Mark Levision no.37, for example, is justifiable purchase?

I am torn..inexpensive or expensive CD transport.....LOL.