A DAC that can make digital sound analog?

All these suggestions are amazing people! Thank you.

...so I already own the ModWright Oppo 105D which many consider an excellent player (but now hearing tape in my system I see/hear all that is not quite right with digital). Most assuredly the Oppo is gonna stay in my system for the foreseeable future.

In the meantime, what is a very solid and noticeable DAC upgrade from the Oppo, on the used market, costing between $500-$1000? It does not need to do DSD, but something that could handle 24/196 via optical, coaxial or usb.

I have a Music Hall 25.3 DAC that I haven’t listened to in years, might hook that up. I can’t imagine the Music Hall is going to best the Oppo, but I’ll give it a shot.

@musichead , yes the Analog Devices chips really are different than the new production.

My transport is a PS Audio PWT which uses a buffer to clock the data. Then I have an iFi iPurifier using a Swagman Labs upgraded LPS to the Audio Note. Then adding a High Fidelity CT-2 SPDIF cable was a major upgrade. I demoed it and even though it cost $1100, I had to have it. Its unlike any other cable I've heard. 

From my Bluesound Node 2i I'm using an Empirical Design coax with a Cullen PC.
Using good quality power cords really upgrade performance of digital.

“I am certain digital can sound as good, if not better than, vinyl and tape. And I am curious to find solutions towards that end.”

Emm Labs DA2 is one such DAC that can END your quest. 

Denafrips DACs do it for me.
I have the Pontus and rate it very highly for its density and, at the same time its delicacy.
I use it with Roon and Tidal via an Antipodes DS server/streamer and am continally amazed at the amount of information on a CD that is just waiting for the right equipment with which to reveal it.

Every ModWright I have heard sounds like Sony with more space.  Not analogue at all.  The Oppo is not a very good sounding CD transport like most universal transports.  Example is that if you burn your CD's to a thumb drive it will sound better than the disc spinner.

Because of this, the ModWright may not be what you use with an outboard DAC because you are not even using the mods you paid for.

Best for CD playback is a native Red Book transport not a universal. It takes big bucks for the universal to start sounding good because of the engineering fixes the manufacturers do to optimize the transport.

The most analogue sounding I have heard while not just darkening the info and coloring it is from Aesthetix.