Sony C77ES CD changer

I own the same player. It's the only piece of gear that's remained in my system since 1992.

I used it for awhile with a Paradisea DAC, and I thought the sound was really terrific. Warm and musical. More three dimensional than through the analog outputs of the Sony. Not reference quality, but excellent in its own right, and better than the C77ES alone (which I've enjoyed for 16 years).

Dont think I'd consider a low end dac at this point in time.Never heard that player,but Tvad knows audio....try to move with money or stay put....not much gained by sideways moves down there...YMMV,good luck,Bob

I'm not trying to push the Paradisea, but using it does give one the advantage of having the flexibility of adding a simple computer based source (like a Squeezebox) at some point. The Paradisea has several digital inputs (coaxial, toslink-which the Sony uses, and USB).

Plus, it's a very good sounding DAC with the added bonus of tube rolling with only one tube.

Obviously, there are other sub-$1000 DACs out there that offer similar flexibility.

Adding the DAC to my 77ES had the effect of increasing the image size and depth by a fair amount. Instruments and voices also took on more body. Just to offer a couple of observations...

These changes are dependent on the resolution of the system as a whole.