Looking for my first DAC

I agree you could mod the OPPO and that might serve you well for awhile but think there are some good reasons for a separate DAC. 

Transports in disc players fail, they always do eventually. My experience has been that as player models change so do the transports inside them and it's sometimes impossible to find a replacement for a model that's no longer current. Without a working transport the DAC inside may be useless, no matter how good it is.
  
And my experience is that most of the advancement in audio quality over the last few years has come from the improvement in DACs. You could reasonably argue that speakers and amps have improved, as well, but the degree of improvement in DACs seems to me to be greatest. I expect that will continue.
 
And, an external DAC gives you more flexibility as new sources of music come along.

SMSL SU-8

Topping D50

RME ADI-2 DAC ($100 over, maybe find one used)

JDS Labs EL DAC


If you are willing to use the $90 Topping D10 as a USB to S/PDIF (Toslink and coax) convertor, then there are some other options you can consider, such as the ~$400 March Audio DAC1.

+1 for what @sfar  posted.

I'd use your 93 as a transport (for now) and go with an external / stand-alone DAC. 

The 93 was reviewed in early 2011, therefore, likely based on ~ 2010 DAC tech. As others have pointed out...there has been serious movement in DACs, since then. 

The 93 was also not to the level of the 95, except (approximately) for going digital out from it (again using it as a transport only).

Your budget of 1K is healthy and there are great options new, and many more used (albeit slightly older) that will run circles around the 93's DAC performance.

david_ten &  sfar,

I agree, the DAC in the 93, was never as good as the 95.  I also agree that using the 93 as a spinner is best way to go. But I am no closer to knowing what to buy yet. The Bifrost is $599 new gets good reviews and I can plug it right into the 93 and out to the preamp. 

Any other suggestions would be great.

Thanks.

JD

OP, not that it matters in the case of a dac, but how is your AR preamp feeding the Acoustats ? You must have an amp of some kind. BTW, I am considering a newer dac, as I just posted as well for some opinions, although more specific. Thank you, and Enjoy ! MrD.