Budget CDP upgrade: DAC or new CDP?

This is really a difficult question. In your price range, you have many, many good options. Personally, I was not very impressed with the Musical Fidelity DAC, even though I LOVE my Tri-Vista SACD. If you shop around, you could probably get a Chord DAC 64 for close to your price. The Chord DAC is amazing even at retail. However, I think you should also consider a Modwright "Universal Truth" Pioneer DV-47 with the tube output stage. It is an amazing machine, and it will play all formats with aplomb. If you buy a new unit online and pay for the mods, you could still come in less than $1.5K. I won't even go into all of the reasons why some might prefer an outboard DAC versus a one box machine, but if you go for one box, you will at least save some money on cables.

Thanks Thsalmon. I'm just trying to understand what's the advantage to go with DAC vs. more expensive CDP (or vice-versa), in the given price range. Multiple reviews for inexpensive (~$1000) DACs all tell that there is a huge advantage of DAC over 'just cdp'...

Would you name some of the besr CD players in this price range - where to start from...