Good cd player and a great DAC or great cd player?

Agree with Bwyoung. I'm not also sure whether just a straight listening would help. In order to evaluate a real difference between two very good components one should know what details to pay attention on, and it's not obvious when go from $1K to $20K level. Criterias of what is a 'good sound' should be adopted to a new quality level. All this just requires a lot of time...

In regards to CDP or DAC+Transport, I was recently looking for the answer on a very same question, one very experinsed person gave me an idea, for which I still feel obliged to him. He explained that while I consider myself on a budget (whatever it means for me), it worth to get more upscale integrated component then two cheaper separate ones. After some listening I realized the wisdom of this rule (there are some exception, such as power requirement for amplifiers, if one need it). It saved me money and I'm happy with my sound. Just my humble opinion.

Agree with Ritteri. While I do believe that all links in the chain are equally important, I desided to build my system around speakers. Why? Speakers set the final limitations on your system: even "cheap" CD player usually can do certain kinds of music quite well, but being harsh on complicate orchestral pieces. But if the speakers become "bad" for you, it won't be good on any genre. My 'old good' NAD CD player sounded pretty good with new Revel M20 speakers (on most genres). But I hardly imagine my new Moon Nova (I consider it as a very good source) would benefit to the sound being coupled with old-cheap Mission 702 speakers.