Big Difference With New Source?

Hi Ptm...I do think CD players sound different enough to make the upgrade worthwhile, but the differences are much much more noticeable when the rest of your system is upgraded. I'm not familiar with most of your components, so I can't comment on them. If you are planning on making other changes you might want to make them first. If not, then spend the money on the better CDP (and consider buying used...you get a lot more for your money).

This is kinda off topic, but I completely agree with Sean as far as the EVS Millenium DAC 2 goes. Like Sean, I was also suffering from a buzz problem. I assumed it was the DAC, but I really didn't want to part with mine. After nearly a year of frustrations and searching I discovered that the buzz was caused by a bad connection in my amp. The DAC was the only component that reacted with the bad connection...the system was silent when the DAC was unplugged. My amp's connections was fixed and the buzz is now gone. Yep...that DAC will find any problem in a system. And I also agree with him about the transport...I've noticed every single transport or cable change. I've been using my old Studer A727 CDP as a transport. It's pretty old (late 80s??) so I assumed it would have loads of jitter, but I've preferred it to every other CDP or DVD I've tried. I recently bought one of Ric's modded Sony transports (used) and I can't wait to hear it. If it's half as good as the DAC I'll die a happy man (preferably in 50 years, or more). And Tim is very right...listening is a learning process. The more you listen consciously, the more differences you begin to notice. In the end, I think I'd take Consttraveler's approach. You may not notice as much of a difference between CDPs with your system, buy a new player, and later you might upgrade speakers and realize that you don't care for the new player. Although I suppose you could always buy speakers that work best with your CDP. Oh well...six of one, half a doze of another. Good luck!