Single box player vs transport/dac

Today's top class players use propriatary clocklink and there is no standart for it. If you use transport and DAC from different companys you can't have clocklink.
Seperates may have benefits because each unit is optimized for it's unique task. Of course the price will be higher for two chassis, two power supplies and two power cords. And you have the option to tune your combo with after market digital connections between the two units.
My personal experience:
My Wadia 270/27ix combo is significantly better than the 861 I had before, but also costs twice as much.

I find it nice that Electrocompaniet continues to offer upgrades (new DAC, analogue parts mod) to its one-box players instead of forcing buyers to replace external DACs, etc., to keep up. Certainly more cost-effective, with outstanding results.

In general, I think one may get ultimately better sound from a matched transport & DAC combo. However, to get better sound than many of the hi-end single box players, you really have to spend some megabucks.

One box players have gotten very good with matching the transport mechanism with the DAC inside the CDP.

As Uli stated, he had to spend two times the amount of money of the Wadia 861 (which is a very nice player) to get better sound. I have an Ayre CX-7 ($3k retail) and have been told that to get objectionably better sond, I would need to move up to the Wadia 861 (at around $8k or so retail). I can only imagine the kind of sound that Uli is getting.

Unless you have megabucks to spend, I would stay with a all in one box player.

KF