Comparing external DAC to CD player DAC

The good news is that entry level high-end DACs are not that expensive now. 

Try either Gustard A18, Denafrips Ares II, or Musician Pegasus. Any of these should give a noticeable improvement in sound quality, and then you can decide if you would like to spend more on better DACs.  

after my search, my conclusion is that it is a SALAD: dac(s); upscaling; re-clocking; filters; anti-jitter; proprietary this and that ....

prefer, not better is the way I think about it.

trust your ears, and any friends ears you trust.

After research and asking advice I went thru 9 different players, found one low cost changer, no SACD (Onkyo Integra CDC-3.4), and finally old Sony xa5400es for CDs and SACDs.

Using computer’s USB to DAC is far superior to using Headphone Jack for simple streaming. Inexpensive Topping D10s sounds great.

It only shows to compare everything. And confirms that computer sourced SQ is usually poor.

At least you didn’t specify the external DAC. Probably not it’s fault.

This also confirms that CDs often sound better than files.

All else is inconclusive.

The title of your post is WRONG.

Not comparing. Try the SPDIF out of the CD for a more valid comparison. You still have to factor in possible inter cable losses.

Good suggestion.  Using the spdif output will provide a more direct comparison.  But at his point, the results are mostly academic for me. I am going to keep the Marantz for cd’s, and get a new DAC for streaming and files. But I am going to do some more evaluating

My 30+ year old Sony CDP-2700 sounded better than most current players.  I was very sad when it died last year. I replaced it with an Audiolab CDT6000 and  Denafrips Pontus ll DAC. The reason I went with separates was so I could use the DAC with most any streamer or any CD player/transport.