Thank you for all that contributed to this thread. I have decided to buy a nice DAC and dedicated transport. I will be looking at Dac’s in the $5k - $8k range. So many choices!
Good luck! Personally I’d look at either the PS Audio DS or one of Denafrips offerings. I have the weest model from Denafrips, the Ares II, and their Terminator regularly gets amazing reviews.