Please Recommend Transport + DAC for $5K total

@melm - interesting.  It’s too bad you don’t have a desktop.  Next year I plan to buy the DAC first, but I will probably get the following as well.  I’m currently running digital coax out of a Xonar Essence PCI card.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pink-Faun-I2S-bridge-LKS-audio-Model-IV-Pink-Faun-IL3-I2S-HDMI-to-RJ45-cable/281933158086?hash=item41a48696c6:g:wu0AAOSwUuFWvK9v

it says it comes with an RJ45 cable wired specifically for the LKS i2s input.  The Pink Faun does not support DSD, only PCM up to 192 which is fine for me.  But I will likely experiment with DOP, as the LKS will accept DOP on its i2s input.  

I also read read that another DAC did DSD better than this LKS, but the LKS won for PCM format.  

@auxinput

Interesting.  I had a look at the Pink Faun and at the TNT review.  You have to wonder why, though, it hasn't found much favor though it's been around for several years.  I think that perhaps it may have been the recent and rapid improvement of USB to I2S converters like the Singxer SU-1 and the LKS USB-100 (the latter being the same circuit as in the upgraded LKS 004).  Both of these accommodate DSD and PCM and have received wide acceptance, and can be used with lap-tops.  Also, do you know why PF charges a premium for the LKS version?  Isn't it just a matter of making up the cable (HDMI to HDMI, or HDMI to RJ45) to accommodate?

Looking at the Pink Faun lit. they make a great deal of the file to USB within the computer as though it's some sort of massive "conversion" which I think is really overstated.

In any event you might want to consider whether doing without DSD (in native form) when running the LKS is a good idea.  I have had a lot of success with SACD rips (especially "pure DSD" from analog originals) and at least one correspondent at the Asylum writes, " With DSD512 [using HQPlayer to upsample from red book] the LKS sounds like an analog rig".  Though upsampling rb all the way to DSD512 seems like a mighty stretch.

Of course, as usual, YMMV.

For a CD transport, I would highly recommend the belt drive CEC TL-5 that I have (around $2000). The Audio Note CDT Zero is another option to consider. A good transport, with a high grade mechanism, will definitely be an improvement over using a CD player for transport duty.

As far as a digital cable, the Cerious Technologies Graphene Extreme ($200) is hard to beat.

For the DAC, I’d definitely go NOS, like the AN DAC o.1x or 1.1x.

@melm - the pink faun i2s models that include a hdmi-to-rj45 “single-ended” cable for a specific dac are $515.  The models without a cable are $330.  I think the pink faun cables are supposed to be really nice, so $185 for a custom i2s digital cable is not out of the realm of possibilities.  The custom hdmi-to-hdmi cable (with balanced digital) would be a tough one to make with all the wires needed.  And every DAC almost has their own hdmi i2s pin configuration.  Ugh!  Anyways, im sure it will be better than coax spdif, which is a single wire.

i don’t think many know about this card because they don’t really focus on a computer for a music server.  Many just use USB because it’s already there.  And the usb interface is industry standard, not like the vendor custom i2s interfaces, lol.  How many people do you know that actually use a SOTM USB card?  Probably more than pink faun, but it’s still a minority.

Direct i2s is still the way to go and better than spdif or usb because the systems do not have to wrap/unwrap the i2s data like they do with usb/spdif.  I’ll just have to do some experimenting.  I don’t do DSD right now, so anything will be an improvement.  Like I said, it’s possible that JRiver will send DOP (DSD-over-PCM) through this i2s card.  If it does, it’s a bonus for me.  I can always just use the usb if I decided to run any DSD files.

for my current system, the coax spdif sounds better than usb.  Spdif has more resolution, detail, bite to the music.

i have heard upsampling and it tends to smooth out the tones, gives a little less actual resolution/texture in my opinion, so I always prefer to run the DAC at the original source file sample rate.

Other matters have unavoidably  pulled me away from this thread but I do appreciate all the input-- collectively, you've provided a lot of info to chew over!