DAC or new player ?

Thanks guys, you are all awesome with your insight! AS TIME GOES BY THE sacd is less important to me.Much to think about.I bought the Sony after reading a good review on it.......but now SACD is pulling a dissapearing act(for the most part).
I have considered analog but the material seems to all be(most) re-issues and that does not excite me. And not even considering the prices of required equipment.It is not out of the running though.
I did study Absolute Sound's piece on hard-drive record/playback and found it VERY interesting.
Tobias, what transport are you using?
Loads of thanks!!!

Along the lines of this thread, can someone explain to me why stand-alone DAC's are so much more expensive than some of the great-sounding integrated CD players? Given the high quality DAC's already built-in to many modern CD players, I can't get my head around the insane prices some separate DAC's sell for, especially when the chips are mass-produced in the same factories these days.
Are they that much better, or is it more related to low production volume or being hand-made that artificially pushes the prices up so high?

CARL,I think that stand alone DAC's maybe start out as higher grade units(usually) that have key components that are of better quality than players like caps and resistors
and the really good ones are very expensive. I really don't understand it well either but it could have a lot to do with production but on the other hand a lot of stuff is being produced in China.So go figure........I just wish decent components were less expensive.
I originally started this thread because I wanted to embrace the digital way and was confused about the directions to choose from.I'm still up in the air about it all.

"I wanted to embrace the digital way"... me too! That's why I found your thread interesting. I wanted to buy a good CD player, but was told I might be better off buying a separate DAC for my Denon DVD player, until I saw how expensive they are.
Now I'm not sure what to do, as I just don't have the time nor experienced ear to spend hours doing listening comparisons.
Given that most DAC chips only cost a few dollars and only come out of a handful of IC manufacturers, and the associated components are even cheaper, I'd love to know how they end up retailing for so much more than some of the really nice integrated CD players, especially the sub $1000 category (Marantz, Cambridge, Rotel etc.)

Konky, check my system and you'll see what I'm using. Yes there are some really expensive DACs around--some expensive transports too--but never mind them. Lots of folks are very happy at the $1K level, less if you buy second-hand. I'm thinking of Apogee, Benchmark, Bel Canto. Tweak them with an isolation transformer or battery power, antivibration footers and a premium digital cable 1.5 meters long... see what you get.

A good transport at that price level is a bit harder to find. Some like TEAC VRDS, some like the Pioneer stable platter mechanism, some like CEC. For $500 - $1K you would have to buy used, and they are likely to be older units.