DAC or CD player

This might not be what you wanted to hear, but two cents:

I've been using a $38 Sony DVD player as a transport into my Wyred4Sound DAC-2. A friend gave me his old 955AX with the (reasonable) assumption that it would have a better digital out than the cheap Sony. So I compared the two in my system, and the cheap-ass Sony won by a mile, with the Rotel sounding grey and veiled in comparison. Even the wife thought it was an easy call.

My two cents, not sure I'd recomend anyone to sink any coin into a new CD player, abesnt a deal that's just too good to pass up. I never expect to buy another one, at any rate. Now, you don't have to go and rip all of your CD's to disk and go that route -- but if you have a nice DAC, you always CAN down that road, you know, down the road. These days, the "transport end" can mean a lot of different things, many of which are in fact wildly more convenient than a CD player while retaining the potential (done right) to sound at least as good or better. Put differently, a DAC keeps your options open on the transport end, while a CD player will always be a CD player.

That said, and I am in fact wildly speculating here, expect that it'd be easier (ie, cheaper) to get your hands on a real nice CD player these days for exactly the same reasons -- more and more folks seem to be going the compu-route. Don't think I can address the which might sounds better question, just too many variables, but I'd go (went, in fact) DAC just for the future-proofing / flexibility issue. And that plus the price of a cup of coffe will get you exactly one cup of coffe....

I go back and forth on this question. On the one hand, it seems silly to sink money into a cd player now. On the other, there are screaming deals to be had on excellent used players. And it's not like DACs are going to stand still, either. Prices will continue to come down; a year or two from now, your DAC dollar will go further.

"Prices will continue to come down; a year or two from now, your DAC dollar will go further."

DAC technology is changing rapidly, so if you wait another few years you'll get much better DAC for less. Just remember to buy this DAC before you die.

Much like Cymbop, I'm also using an inexpensive transport, an Oppo DV-980h, paired with a CAL Sigma tube DAC. This combo bested both my Naim CDX and Doge 6 Tube CDP in just about all aspects.