Recommendations for CD Player/DAC Combo

I guess the majority of audiophiles are going with the Transport/DAC separates.  Has anyone personally compared the sound of the CD player/DAC separates to some really good one box combos?  Are there any hardcore purists who prefer the single component combo for sound quality?  

Is the sound difference worth having to provide extra shelf space and more cables?  The trend now seems to be building all these components into one multi tasking box.  

Thanks for the great responses.   

jl35,

RE: Older player as transport...

I have two Denon DVD 2900’s. Excellent transport into my PS Audio DACs (PW MK II DAC and now DirectStream DAC). They do develop some glitches with the disc drawers from time to time. One of mine fails to read discs after a while (after it gets nice and warmed up), but the other has never had any issues. These are built like a tank and were great performers for the $$ when new ($500 or so, I think). Anyway, they show up used from time to time and make great transports. Find one on the used market for cheap and give it a spin. [Edit: They were $999 back in the day: https://hometheaterhifi.com/volume_11_1/denon-dvd-2900-dvd-player-1-2004.html]

tyan42, FWIW I believe that the current interest in using seperate transports and DAC’s arises from the wide use of on-line sources which require a DAC. So if you had to get a DAC, why not get a transport. I do not use on line sources and have an extensive CD library so this is not an issue for me.

I have been using separates since the 90’s because they were better at the time (or so I thought). I have since acquired some fairly good CDP’s and I think the single units are clearly better, but as I said before with my Marantz, which has provision for other sources, I also use separate ’spinners’ much, but not all of, of the time. When I’m going to actually sit in the sweet spot and listen to music I use the CDP which serves the music best (CDP’s really do sound different from each other).

If I were starting over again I would get a quality CDP with inputs for other sources. I would not get separates, but I would use another spinner to reduce the wear on the CDP’s transport when appropriate as I have done. As Liz said earlier ’spinners’ do sound different. I find that my Onkyo 6 CD changer quite adequate for back-ground music as I do an old Cal Audio transport.

Bucking the general trend, just placed my order for a Bryston BCD-3.  Exclusively red-book; no digital inputs.  Just fine with me.