Cheap DVD Player and Quality DAC

Future formats may require a very different transport as they will probably use different laser technology. Very few players allow you to out-put SACD and DVD Audio uncorrupted, if at all. That said, I think its still a decent idea. Don't completely cheap out on the DVD/transport though.

I agree with Unsound about taking care with the choice in DVD player. While the sound of a very inexpensive player run through a good DAC can be quite remarkable, the ergonomics and build quality can be frustrating. Try out the one you think you're interested in and pay attention to how fast you can load a disc and switch tracks, whether you can customize the display to your liking (things like whether you can see the track number and time remaining), whether the button labels and layout are visible and logical and how much noise the transport makes. Many of the very slim DVD players are especially bad about the ergonomics. It's silly to buy something that irritates you every time you try to use it.

I had a Sony XA-777es sacd player I bought new a couple years ago, redbook was OK..far from outstanding though. SACD playback of well recorded sacd's was a different story...I thought outstanding in every way...$3,000 retail

I don't own but did spend a lot of time listening to an Ayre player at a local dealer (also $3,000 retail). I was not there to listen to the player, I was listening to some huge ($14,000 I think?) VMPS speakers. The Ayre did catch my ear though and I went back and listened to it several times...very nice player.

In regards to your question:

I did stumble into a trade for a DAC I knew nothing about. I traded a pair of speakers ($500) value that I no longer had use for...a local for sale or trade ad I ran.

The DAC is an old Counterpoint DAC-10A with ultra-analog card and HDCD decoder...sales receipt says $3,885 at the bottom (3/12/96)...ten years old now

Now here's the cheap DVD player part. I had three on hand when I got the DAC...I figured the $1,200 retail unit would be my choice, the other two were under $150 retail and used mostly for movies...I tried them all anyway.

The winner...a $100 Pioneer DVD-563A by a long shot, clearly has something going on with the old Counterpoint that the other two players did not?

Could it sound better?...I'll guess yes, with a better transport. Overall...right up there with those two $3,000 players to my ear...a $600 stumble that paid off is my way of looking at it.

So, IMHO and all that stuff...my answer is yes, maybe

Dave

"Anyone doing this with good success? What are you using? "

Onkyo Integra DPC 8.5 universal player (about $700, I think)-->Dodson 217 Mark 2 D DAC with upgraded 218-like software and an isolation transformer upgrade on one of the inputs (Dodson unit retailed just under 5000, I think, but was purchased on Audiogon for under 2000--great deal, and highly appreciated by me.)
Cables:
1)Player-->DAC: Groneberg (spelling?) Digital Reference cable
2)DAC-->Preamp: Audioquest Python RCA (single ended, not balanced)
Sounds WAAAYYYY better thru the Dodson. (Dodson cannot be used for SACD, of course.)
Bonus thing: Satellite reveiver has optical output which feeds to optical input of the Dodson, so the Dodson can go into the signal chain when listening to "satellite radio" thru the dish network, which is quite nice.

"What do you think of this approach."

It sounds great within my system. The Dodson is a stellar unit. Therefore, this approach appears to be a pragmatic compromise, but I will admit to having no clue as to how much a better transport would improve things sonically.* Doesn't really matter because a "high end" transport's not in the cards anyway: I INSIST on a remote controlled changer, and want the versatility of a universal player.

*As I understand it, the Dodson takes the jitter to basically zero (or near it) but--of course--cannot correct reading errors by the transport.

The Integra has Wolfson DACs... same as used in Arcam, no?