Does the Transport make a significant difference

Unfortunately I don't have the opportunity to audition a new transport or preamp. My other thought was add a JL Audio sub for now and down the road upgrade my source or preamp. All three options are within the same price range. With the exception of my speakers, I've changed everything over the past two months. Whatever option I choose will be the last change for awhile.

11-24-14: Ricred1
My other thought was add a JL Audio sub for now and down the road upgrade my source or preamp.

Since you indicated that your P5 preamp has been sold, I assume you are envisioning the possibility of driving your power amp with the balanced outputs of the PW DAC, and the sub with its unbalanced outputs. And as is usually the case with powered subs, the input impedance of the unbalanced line-level inputs of the JL subs is low, e.g., 10K for many or all of them, and IIRC most of them do not provide speaker level inputs.

Given that, before purchasing a sub I would suggest asking PS Audio if the balanced and unbalanced outputs of the DAC are independently buffered (i.e., driven from separate output stages). If they are not, adding the sub could very conceivably have adverse effects on the sonics you hear from your main speakers.

Regards,
-- Al

The deal fell through and I still have my preamp.

I purchased a Parasound JC 2 preamp. I will post my results next week.

A properly setup system will never place instruments as radically out of place as you mentioned. Images should never go from center stage to far left. That is not something that cables or equipment will impact to the degree you described.
either something was broken or it is hyperbole. No piece of equipment properly designed and implemented does this, period!

Please review what you have written. If this was actually what you meant you must consider my be point. Otherwise if you believe that a properly functioning piece of equipment is rearranging instrument placement your open to anything. Equipment can improve perceived depth or slightly increase width but an instrument going from 0 degrees axis to 65....well, that is not the way equipment works. 55 degrees to 60, okay....but 0 to anything else is an indication of something seriously wrong.