DAC recommendations for CDs in 2-channel system

Why not move up the Schiit line of DAC products?

Border Patrol.  Check them out carefully.

@twoleftears that Border Patrol DAC (eg. on the LTA site) has made me drool. there was a used on the classifieds recently that got snatched up.

@sorcan. I would support the Oppo suggestions. Transports are not created equal from CD player to CD player. there are big differences in the sound quality. about 3-4 years ago I did an "A/B" Transport test b/w the Oppo 95 MULTIPLAYER ($1000) and my DEDICATED SimAudio Equinox SE CDP ($2500). the Oppo was humiliated. 

But in your situation: you have a self-professed crappy transport, which tells me that if you use a crappy transport with even very good DAC like the Schiits that have been suggested above, you will still get inferior sound for what you have already paid for.
Because in the electronic chain from source to speakers, the SQ Sound Quality can only degrade and get worse, it will NEVER get better per se. I mean, it might get "different" and you may like that "different", but it will never recover resolution that has been lost earlier in the audio chain. 

So your best bet, if you have $1000, is just to pick up an Oppo to get the CDP and transport in one unit. Down the road, your upgrade chain would be to perhaps use the Oppo as transport only, and hook up to a dedicated Schiit DAC and/or use reclocking devices to clean up the signal as Steve has suggested. 

But sorcan, what is you budget?
and are your ears sensitive to higher frequencies? perhaps not.
when I ran Klipsch HORN speakers with SS, made my ears hurt.

I too am using Odyssey Kismet Mono Blocks driving Maggie 3.7panels with DWM woofers in parallel. I also owned Cornwalls in the late 70'S. The Dac I purchased a couple of years ago is the PS Audio Direct Stream Junior. Great sound in every respect, and I came off f a Benchmark HGC 2 Dac to switch. No one but no one does customer service like PS Audio. Call them up,They are the friendlies folks around and will answer any and all questions, never rushing you.T
ry their website and chek out the Forums. Again very informative. That Dac sells for $4000.00 but with a decent trade can be had for $3000.00.

Down the road, your upgrade chain would be to perhaps use the Oppo as transport only, and hook up to a dedicated Schiit DAC and/or use reclocking devices to clean up the signal as Steve has suggested.

+1

That is precisely what I’m doing, albeit minus Steve’s suggestion of a reclocker. I maintain the "clean up" (jitter) is successfully handled by the DAC itself. No need, IMO, to clean, and then re-clean again.