Hi-fi digital front end suggestions for my system

Thanks for the responses so far. It appears that there are two very good USB DACs in my price range - the Benchmark DAC1 and the Bel Canto DAC3. The Wavelength Cosecant seems awesome but at $3500 is out of my range.

The Bel Canto is a bit over my budget but I would willingly stretch a bit if the difference in sonic performance between the two is significant. From what I have read, the power supply and the clock are both very high end which may justify the difference in price vs. the Benchmark. In either case, I plan to run the DAC into my Manley Shrimp tube preamp, so performance as a dual purpose DAC/preamp is not really my main concern. As an added benefit would the Bel Canto substantially boost the performance of my modded XA9000es (just using the Sony as the transport)?

I just picked up the latest issue of Stereophile today with a review of the Bel Canto DAC3. The review suggested that the Bel Canto would be a good deal at half of its $2500 retail price and that the performance from its USB input fell short compared to the digital input side. By comparison, Stereophile reviewed the Transporter earlier this year and gave it a glowing review in terms of value and sonic performance for its $2000 price. I also like the fact that Modwright offers a reference modification package for the Transporter if I ever have another $2k burning a hole in my pocket...Looks like the Transporter is the way to go in the $2k and under range.

Does anyone here have a Transporter in their system? How does a stock Transporter compare sonically to your reference CD/SACD player?

Thanks Audphile1. If you are comparing the sound of the Transporter to CD players in the $3-4k range it is obviously a very nice sounding unit strait out of the box, especially for $2k. I don't have an external DAC in my system, and while my modified Sony XA9000es is great, its certainly not the ultimate player. It sounds like the Transporter might do just as well as my player (excluding SACDs).

The Wavelength Cosecant seems like an outstanding USB digital source, but at $3500 the price of entry is rather steep for me. I wonder if anyone has compared the Modwright Transporter ($4000) to the Cosecant? If I was to go the Transporter route, I could always upgrade with Modwright mod package down the line....