Rega Apollo - DAC / Player to beat it

In that price range, I would highly recommend consider looking into the Modwright-modified Oppo 105.

It may take awhile to find one, but I highly reccomend the BAT VK-D5 SE with superpak upgrade. I have seen them sell used for less than 4k. I can hoestly say with redbook cds I preferred the sound over the EMM XDS1 at 25k. I have compared it to Electrocompaniet, Rega Saturn, Krell older models, and several others. I have always preferred the BAT.

Another vote for Ayre.

Another vote for Esoteric or Ayre.

I read your post carefully and am still recommending the new Rega Apollo R as transport and a decent DAC which could be one of many. The transport on the new Rega is simply terribly good. I'm running one with a Decware DAC through all Manley electronics and Penaudio Cenya monitors and it is terrific.

I'm using a new (not fully broken in) Oppo 105.
So far, it doesn't sound as good as the Apollo I once owned (at least on CDs).
A recent review (MAY/JUNE TAS) has me juiced about the new Bryston BDA-2 DAC.
It says that pairing the BDA-2 and their digital player (for computer playback) is something really special.
Take it a step further by adding the Bryston CD player as a transport and you may have your new digital front end...

I feel that way about my 6 year old Rega Apollo, a $1000 product (paid $1000). I also feel that way about my 9 year old Musical Fidelity CD PRE 24, a preamp/ cd player that was a $3000 product (paid $1400 when discontinued). Both really sweet CD players. I acquired a couple of back-up CD players in the last year (XTZ CD 100 and Emotiva ERC-2, $600 and $350 respectively), but they are not sonic improvements ... just a couple of well built players that perform above their relatively inexpensive prices.

When the time comes to seriously upgrade the CD player, off the top of my head I would be looking at Ayre, Esoteric, top of the line Rega. I figure I would be looking in the $3-5k range.

Rich