CDP or DAC?

Getting digital to equal the quality of a $15,000+ analog set up is not an easy task. You must do everything right. You can begin by tossing the idea that you want to play physical disks. Start ripping your CDs and SACDs to a hard disk. Not only better convenience, but better SQ and a saving of cash you will need. Do research on the best DAC for you. Sigma delta chips, multibit chips and discrete D2D devices have all been proven to make great DACs when properly implemented. Some are more detailed; some are more "relaxed." Choose the flavor of the month if you wish. Since you’re an analog person pay careful attention to the analog section of the DAC. Discrete sections should outperform those based on chip op amps. Finally, just as a TT has to feed the phono pre a good signal from the LP, you will have to feed quality bits from your HD to your DAC. That will take research too. Good luck! I did it. You can do it.

I realize that everyone’s entitled to his or her opinion. BUT this thread gives me the impression that some contributors are in a time warp writing as though it’s 10 or 15 years ago. Physical media has really gone the way of the 8-track tape, except for delivering the media to you, but not to your DAC.

The music can be entirely yours if you copy your disks, buy new ones and copy (though I prefer buying used CDs) or download music files from commercial sites. Most who commit to hard disk have a backup disk. They’re cheap enough. You will also have the opportunity to stream. Some like to do that at intervals to try out music for eventual purchase.

Also, not all bits are the same. It matters how the bits are managed as they flow into your DAC. The "bits are bits" argument was settled a long time ago. It is simply not true. A very good disk player that would be required to meet your standard will be quite expensive, is already obsolete, and can be outperformed in SQ by more up to date devices once your media is on hard disk.

Finally, as so often happens here, many are advising you buy what they have bought and what pleases them.  You have to figure out what you what in a digital set-up to meet your needs.  It's easily as complicated these days, maybe more, than picking a TT, arm, cartridge and phono pre. 

@aolmrd1241
Yes, of course. My Oppo 105 has had streaming for a long long time. But the question for me is always SQ, just like whether reading data off a CD or off an HD yields better SQ. Will the combo unit stream as well as a dedicated streamer--always remembering that the quality of the bits delivered to the DAC matters.

What I meant to say was obsolete was the use of disk readers, except for ripping.

"The real sound is made outside the chip by power supplies, filters, clocks, and analog stages."  So true.