Oppo 105 D vs. DAC-transport combination.

Many CD or even DSDs are copied form Vinyl so you could imagin the sound quality without more digital processing. Modern direct digital recording improve this. Even the spinning CD has variation from all sources. Digital stream is the new form of music playing. IMHO, music is above all. DAC, amp and speaker are second. As far as 105D as DAC, it is a very good CD/DSD/SACD/Blueray player. Save your money and subscribe to Tidal or even Spotify at $20/month. The $2000 DAC upgrade can buy you 100 months Tidal Hifi/MQA. For two channel music, I will use the the balanced XLR out at line level to get the best SNR. Use balanced all the way to amp. For SACD, I would use the 5.1 analog out to 5.1 speaker setup.it is a totally new music listening experience when you heard 5.1 ( I should say 5.0) when you hear SACD multi-channel.

melm,

     You are correct, I've never owned or used a high quality vinyl setup in my system, just a mediocre vinyl setup that I used during my college years.  I switched to a CD setup fairly soon after graduating in 1980. 
     Side note a bit off topic:  I also used a Super-Beta vcr in my A/V system during the early 80's and recall using it to create custom playlist  tapes by recording my favorite CD tracks on Beta tapes recorded at the Super-Beta recorder's highest speed.  These audio recordings made on Beta video tapes using the Super-Beta machine's highest recording speed not only sounded superior in my opinion to the original CD but also had a lower noise level and higher recording capacity than the typical audio cassettes were capable of at the time.  
     While I've never used a high quality TT setup in my system, I have been and am familiar with the very high sound quality a good TT setup is capable of via listening to hi-end TT based systems of friends and retailers.  
     However, my opinion is that high resolution direct to digital recordings, even played back on my admittedly mediocre system, sound superior to me to vinyl recordings played back on significantly better systems.
     I perceive direct to digital recordings as presenting a more realistic sound stage illusion in general that gives me a greater impression that I'm actually 'in the room'.  I attribute this increased realism being due to hi-res digital's ultra quiet background combined with its fine detail levels and exceptional dynamic range ability. 
     To be fair though, I've never been able to compare the same musical content recorded to vinyl to one recorded direct to digital. and these are just my overall impressions.
     But, as we've all stated before in various ways, which format is 'best' is much less important than which one you enjoy listening to the most.

Tim 

junzhang10
Many CD or even DSDs are copied form Vinyl so yiu could imagine the sound quality without more digital processing.

>>>>>Really?! Whoa!

@geoffkait - In the late 90's, Sony bought several special Rockport transcription turntables at something like $80,000 each. It was assumed they would be used to copy vinyl where the master tape wasn't available or in proper condition.

Thanks for the info. Most of my original customers had the Rockport turntable but it wasn’t a transcription type but it did have a dedicated isolation platform. The version that came out in 2000 went for $73K. I participated in a (big) room at Las Vegas with Rockport Hyperion speakers. EMT had a transcription turntable, maybe that’s the one.