Soooo many choices.

Dogitter what were you thinking of upgrading too?

Mrvco, so even the cheapest ones are worlds better than what's in the oppo 981? Or is that as good as it gets(which is highly unlikely)?

Willie, haven't started looking at that yet.

Doggitter, Mrvco is correct - any of these dacs will perform.

Which ones suites your ears we just don't know

Better than the oppo? -I would have to hear it, but probably.

I was surprised exactly how good my Pioneer Elite D_45a sounded considering it's not really "hi-fi" - but the Bifrost really is in a different league - and now the dvd sounds as good using the s/pdif output into the DAC.

I also like Jesse Cook, but even better is his band member Nicholas Hernandez - a great guitar player. Sounds great through the Bifrost :-)

What you will get from the dacs mentioned here over the Oppo is the dynamics - but use a really good power cable.

The question here maybe is - will the performance attained be worth the outlay? - only you can answer that one :-)

So, audition a couple - if its difficult to get a home audition take your Oppo to the store and ask them to do an a/b compare to some DACs

At least you'll get some idea of any performance gap.

Go for a higher priced DAC just to gauge how the Oppo's performance compares.

Other than that I'm not sure what else to suggest?

Maybe what's getting in my way here is that I'm kind of from the school of thought that I want a system that produces the most accurate reproduction. If a component changes the sound in any fashion then it really doesn't fit that desire. I understand that some recordings aren't what we would maybe want to hear, I'm fine with that.
Most of what I am striving for will come from cd's until I get situated with a HD stream setup of some sort. At first the streaming will be for convenience. As such I don't know what bit rate, sampling rate, clocking speed, or any of these other tech terms mean. I'm still of an analog thought process, trying to learn.
Power and IC cables are in the plan, as is anything else that comes to mind that is the weak link. Of course it will take quite some time to do with the funds I will have available. In fact one of the reasons I've thought of upgrading the pre and amp is the fixed, small, oe power cables the current pieces have.
Your comment about your Pioneer and the Biifrost is exaclty why I'm looking towards a DAC, along with my picking one with USB will bring in the Pandora streaming that the wife is into.
I'm sure I'm not close to making a decision soon as I has way too much I want to learn about it still.
So, another question to get me closer. What does bit rate have to do with this?
Names Loren by the way..