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

The upgrade plan makes sense in principle: buy a player, then a DAC and a digital interconnect, then sell the player and get a good transport. Along the way you might try an aftermarket power cord.

But is this the best way? Reliable generalizations are impossible. It depends on the deal that comes up when you go shopping, it depends to some degree on component interactions; more than anything else it depends on the sound you discover you prefer. If you mentioned specific players, than asked about the quality of the transport in each, someone might be able to provide info... but I don't know how much farther ahead you would really be after that. Are you really ready to start considering the pros and cons of Sony vs. Philips, or TEAC VRDS vs. CEC? How easy will it be even to find out what transport a given player uses? Is that the important question?

My very humble personal opinion is that if I were in your shoes I probably would have stopped listening to my sound system except in the background. If I sat down to listen, my attention would wander. I'd pick up a book or think about exams. Emergency! Nine-one-one! Call the music medics!

Is that what's happening to you?

Most of us would agree with you: you need to change your source. I myself would have a burning desire to do it right now and not wait. As for what to, well, a NAD 541 or a Music Hall CD-25 would give you a better reason to listen right now. If you can look farther upscale, fine. If you can wait longer and save more, fine.

Once you get your next source, though, forget planning, stay open and listen, listen, listen. Listen to your system, to friends' systems, make friends with a dealer (hint: buy something) and listen to the best he's got. Go to a show. You'll come to know what you like within what's available and what you can afford. That will make your choice of a much better source and an upgrade path much easier when the time comes.

I think you are making absolutely the right decision in upgrading your source first. In fact, according to me you should sacrifice on other components to get the very best possible source. So many systems have a so-so front end, and at the finish line you can hear that oh-so clearly. My principle (given a finite budget) is that you should always have more resolution available at the source than downstream.

Thanks for the kind word, Conscious. Your question required me to get my own ideas together, and I enjoyed my shot at that.

I see that you have already done a great deal of good research. Your upgrade path makes sense, certainly. May I say, though, that unless you know you will be coming into money, at the moment it is more fun than serious? I had my own upgrade path all planned out too. I had the amp, I had the preamp, speakers were narrowed down to only five or six choices, I knew what was next. Then UPS put a spell on me for more than six months with their horrible claims process. Then I made a friend whose second-string preamp blew my first-string, preamp-for-a-thousand-years, right out of the water. Then... well, my upgrades since then have depended on serendipity and my own ears, and I no longer know what's next except in a "that's-nice-in-principle" sort of way.

It takes a long time to get used to changes in your music system. A new component can make you want to listen to every piece of your software twice over again. That's the very best part. When that happens, I realize that other people are way ahead of me, some manufacturers especially, and I will be upgrading till the day I leave the planet.

It's great that you already have a component to shoot for ( the AN DAC ). If you can't go for your Audio Note 2.1 now, though, how long can you wait and still spend time with music at home happily? Dwyoung and Dmitydr suggest a good reason for a one-box for now. I understand what you say about the two entry-level players I suggested, and I don't think they would sound lots different in your own system ( try to evaluate new components with what you have whenever possible ). You might consider a used Shanling CD-T100, there are some deals here at the moment ;-).

I've heard the argument for putting most of your money into your speakers before. Often the people who advance it say that speakers are the most critical part of the sound system, but they don't say why. Or they say, well, that's the part that actually moves the air. Or that the speakers are responsible for some large percentage of the total distortion in the system, 35 % for example. I believe these arguments, with or without the distraction of figures, miss the point.

Ritteri, I agree with you that a separate transport and DAC are definitely not a guarantee in themselves of good reproduction. I even think, like you, that unless there is a compelling reason to get a two-box system ( a reason such as an upgrade opportunity too good to miss, or a combination which your ears tell you beats everything else at the same price ), then a single-box player is a much better bet.

You may choose to develop a system around a pair of wonderful speakers, but unless you can immediately afford to purchase all your other components at the same level of performance, you will then wait for your upgrades as you listen to the weaknesses of your upsteam units in horrible clarity. Whereas if you have a fine source, upgrades downstream will progressively reveal what a fine buy you made at the start. This is why it makes more sense to start building a system at the source.

Joyelyse, I too would like to hear how the Ikemi turns out in your tests, if you get the chance to post !

I didn't say that good speakers should never be used with a less-good source. I said that given a limited budget and an upgrade plan like the (excellent) one Conscious has, he is making the best decision to spend as much as he can on the source first. In this way he will get the most pleasure over the long term.

It's a fact for me. A good source with ordinary downstream gear is more listenable than the opposite. Where I worked years ago setting up turntables, it was easy to hear. We had the cheapest monitor equipment you can imagine, and you could still easily tell the difference between sources of different quality. When a really good turntable, a Linn for example, came in for a checkup, it grabbed everyone's attention.

Upgrading is expensive. It makes economic sense to buy everything in your dream system right now if you can. But if you have to plan to get there over ten years, then I say plan the fewest changes you can, and start with a great source.

Joyelise, way to go ! Thanks so much for sharing your impressions so far. I'm really looking forward to more if you get the chance.

Best wishes, Toby

Joy Elyse, thanks very much for sharing your impressions here. Your experience is of great value to me.

I went to Audio Asylum and found a good number of suggestions with a search for "CD transport" in the Digital Drive forum. One of them was a machine I know : the discontinued Parasound C/BD 2000, which is UHF magazine's reference. It's a belt-drive machine made by CEC. I've heard it at four shows now.

Another transport I thought was very good for the money was the Cambridge DiscMagic. I think it may still be available by special order.

The TEAC VRDS transports have a considerable number of fans. I have no idea of pricing on these.

You might try searching the archives here for more suggestions, or starting a thread on the subject.