CD Transport advices


Greetings,
It' s been a long time since my last post here. After years pleased w/ the same system, last year, I started a complete upgrade, and as you will see, I do need some help from my Audiogon's expert fellows.
My current system consists of:

-Dali Epicon 6 - speakers (new - 6 weeks)
-McIntosh MC 452 - amp (new - 7 months)
-McIntosh D100 - pre/DAC (new - 9 months)
-Oppo 103D - transport (new - 9 months)
-Audio Aero Prima MKIII - transport - (old - 7 years) - broken last week...
-Cables: KS 1130 (interconnects), KS 3035 (speakers - arriving next week- I can't wait!), some Fusion Audio and one KS PK 10 Palladian (power cords), Transparent Digital Premium (coaxial).
-in the near future - Aurender server/streamer - model yet to decide.

My new speakers arrived six weeks ago. The differences to my old (and adored!) Anthony Gallo Reference 3.1, were huge w/ the Dali right out of the box, and are becoming more and more evident as the Epicons are running-in (they barely played 60h). I' m still astonished with what I can hear w/ the Epicons 6 in my room! The problem is that the Prima stop reading CDs in the middle of these huge changes and I got completely lost. I fed my oppo w/ the same cables that were feeding the Prima and could not hear (or better saying, remember) much differences between them, but: would I notice, in a A/B comparison? I mean, do you think the old Audio Aero Prima is, in fact, a better transport then the new Oppo 103? Do you think they should play equal when connected to the D100 DAC?! Or, maybe, the Oppo could do a better job, since it is a new project?
Is a CD transport, so crucial to the McIntosh D100 performance? What do I do?
-stay w/ the oppo and forget about CD transport?
-try to fix the Prima, if it should be a better transport then the Oppo?
-or forget both, and buy something else, more compatible w/ the rest of the system? What suggestions then?
Despite the fact that I will probably buy an Aurender server in the near future, I have about 700-800 CDs, some of them really audiophiles, and I wanted to play them in the old fashioned way, and in a level compatible w/ my new system.
As you see, I'm completely lost here, and any tips will be of great help. Sorry for the bad english, and for the long post.
Best regards.
rogertmac
Probably not the advice you want, but when my Wadia transport croaked I tried computer audio to DAC over USB, and would never buy another transport. To me, transports and physical CD's are yesterday's news and online/hi-res/ripping/downloads/streaming is the future, and USB is the (gasp) superior connection. In my system, all things markedly improved when I dumped the transport. YMMV.
I agree. I don't see why the Oppo won't give you good results, although the transport is important. At the very least, using the Oppo will let you wait for a good deal and be picky about what transport you buy. Or you can try a PC. Either way, it looks like you are in pretty good shape here. No reason to worry.
Thank you guys. I think I´ll wait untill the Epicons are fully broken-in and decide after that. This way I can compare things better. In the meantime I´ll try to fix my Prima (it´s probably the optical laser that died). Anybody else there using the Mcintosh D100? With which transport?