High Quality DAC versus High Quality CD/SACD

I use a dac from an imac and find it equals a good cd player - especially if you opt for some of the playback software such as PureMusic. Plus if you've already got the PC it saves a lot of cash. And you are not limited to 44.1/16.

A good PC based system will easily perform as well, if not better than a standalone player and is most definitely not limited to 44/16 resolution. The DAC you choose, along with the interface between the computer and the DAC will determine the limits - 96/24 is pretty common these days but there are many that go even higher if you have the source material to throw at it. The only downside is that only your SACD player will be able to play your SACD's at the higher resolution you've probably come to enjoy. AFAIK you cannot rip those SACD's at their native resolution (unless there is a product I don't know about).

There are many SACD/CD Players with digital inputs: starting from Oppo 83 and finishing with APL HiFi NWO player.

This is what I have (NWO-S1) and I can use the DAC of this player along with any pc for hi-rez downloads and CD/SACD Transport for SACD and CD's Also all CD's can be ripped if pc/music server is good