Advice on CD transport

Hello,
I am not sure where you live. If it is in the US, my local audio store is a Hegel dealer and has the 390 in stock.  Also, the owner just brought in a used balanced Ayre SACD player that retails for $3000 on sale for $1500 from his own personal collection. He has the big brother $6,000 SACD player at his house now. This player makes all those other models that were mentioned, which are good choices pail in comparison. I am thinking the owner, Mike Holm would give you a deal on the two pieces. They can ship it to you if you do not live near the Chicagoland area. The website is -
holmaudio.com. If I did not own a Oppo 205 I would buy it. I need my Oppo 205 for movies. I know this sounds like a plug, but the end goal is to get you some gear that people can only dream about very close to your budget. I just bought two matching T9 REL subs that were meant to go into the owners house. He helped me out and let me have them instead. I hope you did not pull the trigger on the Hegel yet because that is what’s going to make this deal work.  Good luck, GOD speed, and welcome back to the game. 

I have enjoyed my CA CXC.

Matter of fact you can get the CXC *and* a Project Pre Box S2 DAC
for less than $1000 (as I did) and put more money into an amp without a DAC (which makes it easier to upgrade later) or use a vintage amp like my rebuilt Pioneer SA-9100.

I believe the Project is way better than most internal amp DACs.
Good luck!

The Marantz hd cd-1 is a steal at current prices. It is compact, beautiful with the wood sides, and it works wonderfully as a cd transport. The headphone amp built in is also very good. Music direct had it @$399. It is a $600 player. Marantz are well known for building very nice cd players/transports. Secondly, I would choose the audiolab cdt 6000. I own both, and feel they are equally good in their roles as a transport. 

Used CEC TL3N

Hello,
I would agree with Towertone in 99% of the cases when you are using an internal DAC versus a stand alone. One of the only companies I feel that makes an incredible DAC for the integrated amps is Hegel. It does everything and has really good sound. I am a separates guy for the most part. Hegel is one company that does this extremely well. Also by getting an internal DAC you do not need to spend money on power and interconnect cables which can easily add $500 to the price. Nor do you have to spend the time figuring out which interconnects sound right with your system. This is a very common rabbit hole that can really get expensive.  With this setup you only need to add a something for streaming and you are ready to go. You already figured out the hard part of figuring what pre/ amp sounds best with your setup. The rest is really about money for the sources. It took me 20 years to lock in my power plant.