NEED HELP CHOOSING NEW DAC

...not only good but realy dedicated to work with the transport inside of your one box Cary.
Tough job to choose the right one that will outperform in your case. I'm affraid to give you advice for the one but you might research Mark Levinson older models used that are extreamly fast and revealing. Somehow grab a chance to listen first since in almost any case mating DAC with one-box CD-player needs experiments.

I thought my Electrocompaniet CD player had a good built in DAC much like the Cary and that to improve would be hard to do at any price. I then heard a Kora Hermes Dac with Telefunken tubes and decided to try one out - for 1500 plus a bit more to upgrade tubes I reached a better situation for what I call minimum High end dollar. The EC is a great transport top loader without a drawer mechanism which makes it quick change in recording . I can make a direct comparison in its DAC and the Kora and you just do not want to listen to the EC by itself. the Dodson was my second choice but a lot more money at the time.

Thank you for all of the reponses it is good to know about my CD player.

Check Muse as well. (www.museelectronics.com)
Very nice stuff.

Audio Note DAC 1.2 offers the closest thing to analog I've heard. A bargain at $1,100.00.