CD-player for $1100 - Can I do any better?

The Sony DVP-NS900V modified by TRL is a good option if you can find one. You may also want to call TRL and talk to them about modding your existing CDP, or perhaps let them recommend other CDPs that with mods would fit your budget. I know they have done a number of Sony players, notably the 595 and 777 (see 6moons reviews on these), that would probably get you farther along than any of the options you mentioned.

The DAC is a great suggestion as well. There are several great ones to choose from under $1000 and even at the $500 price point. If your existing CDP is up to being a transport and you splurge on an excellent digital cable this could provide great bang for the buck.

Yes,

Bit perfect output from your PC to an exceptional DAC. Foobar as the front-end to catalog your collection. Free DB to tag the files. Hard drive based systems will rival any highend transport for a fraction of the cost. I have owned many transports/players and can attest to this fact.

Chaintec 710 sound card
TriVista 21 DAC
Custom built PC with Raid 5
Foobar 2000
Levinson 33H mono's
4 Bryston 7BST mono's
Infinity RS1B's

I was looking to upgrade my CD-player and my budget is limited to $1100.

Does anyone read anymore? He said $1100, not $5K+.

Racerxnet, I am considering this very move. In my setup the Squeezebox makes the most sense. Do you have any firsthand experience with how this sounds compared to a very good transport?

Tonyptony,

I have no experience with the squeezebox at all, though I can tell you that the PC based system is as good if not better in many respests that a single disk system cannot surpass. Those of which I listed above. As for sound quality, I prefer the PC based system.