I bought a near mint McCormack DAC Deluxe for $285 on Ebay (the upgrade alone from the standard DAC to the Deluxe is $250!!) and use a Sonicwave 280 strand glass toslink ($23 from Buy.com) with my old 5 disc sony CDP 75es player. WOW!!!! I hear things in CDs I know well that I never heard before; much better sound stage, smoother highs, new bass authority,increased dynamics, proper harmonics and decay of notes. For a total of $340 including the Deluxe McCormack DAC, glass toslink interconnect and shipping it is a bargain you can live with and easily improves the sound of multidisc redbook cd players. I think you will have to spend a lot more to improve on this combination. The service department at McCormack was extremely helpful and even sent me an owner's manual at their expense. Great people to deal with. I'm more than satisfied and I'm not easy to please.
DAC Recommendations
I have a large collection of DAT tapes and have been using a PS Audio Ultralink 11/HDCD as a outboard DAC and looking to upgrade. My CDP is a Mephisto 11.X but doesn't have a digital input. I am looking at the newer upsampling DAC, Benchmark, Musical Fidelity and others. Any suggestions? My price range is 1500.00 new or used. Any help is appreciated.