Transport/Dac 101

Since you already have a DAC, you should look for a stand-alone transport that just spins the disc and sends a digital signal to an out board DAC (such as yours). There are 74 transport listed here at Audiogon right now, many of which are in your price range.

JD

A good transport is just as important (and some feel even more important) as a DAC. All transports can read a CD with 100% accuracy, but only a good one will ensure the accurate timing of sending those bits to the DAC (jitter). I had a MSB Link DAC III driven by a Denon CD player, and there was a huge improvment when I bought a Theta Data Basic II.

I suggest you consider a Sony DVP-S7700 as it makes an excellent CD transport as well as a damned good DVD player. The secret is it has a dedicated laser pickup for the CD and another for the DVD. Stock it is very good; with minor mods (clock upgrade mostly) better.

Used about 250 w/box. You have to spend a lot more to improve on this. As for DACs it is hard to beat the entry level Audio Note DAC 1x and 1x Signature for very good and listenable sound. A new Audio Note 1x Dac is 1500; the Signature version is 2000. I just bought the used DAC 1x Signature Mk II posted on audiogon. I used an original DAC 1 Signature for ten years with no problems and it sounded very good; only moved it along to get some money out of it before it became too old and became worth almost nothing.

If you want a nice sounding CD player and don't care about being able to play CDR discs (this one will only do store bought discs) look no further than a CEC TL51 cd player; about 1600 new. Their tl51x transport goes for just under 1300.