Cambridge Audio 640C... I want to upgrade

You have lots of choices here. I considered the Cary 308T as well as the Sim Audio Moon Equinox, which if you are patient turns up for around $1300 - $1400 used. New Quad 99s are in your price range and have been recommended by a lot of folks.

The DAC recommendation is a good one and the direction I went. There are excellent new and used DACs in your price range, not to mention significantly below your limit (see the Audio Mirror D1 here on Audiogon that sells for $500 new).

Good luck with the search and happy listening.

My suggestion is go with a one box player. In your price range there are tons of great players used and new. I would suggest the following: Cary 308 or 308T, Quad CDP99, Sony XA777ES, or even the Marantz 8260.

The XA777ES and 8260 have great Redbook playback and SACD would just be a bonus. I have used CD players as transports before and they DO NOT stack up when compared to a dedicated transport and DAC combo.

Good Luck!

Chris

One possibility is to use your 640c as a transport & upgrade your sound with an outboard dac. The 640c has very low jitter and makes an excellent inexpensive transport. I've used a 640c as a transport in conjunction with an Assemblage (Sonic Frontiers) 2.7 dac with all their parts upgrade mods. It makes for a very fine sounding combo that competes well with very expensive one box players. Of course I now have two boxes instead of one, so two spaces get used in my audio rack, and I'm not sure how durable the Cambridge is.

If you can find a CAL DX1 in good condition, buy it ASAP. It's been my good ol' standby for 10 years, and it beats most gear hands down in terms of long-term listening pleasure. Cheers.