? Modded Oppo 983 ?

Yeah this way it keeps 100% of your options open with any format you want, and is cheaper to change out a player for a couple hundred, and still have the core performance of a good DAC for the final sound, plus resale on the DAC will not suffer nearly as much as a modded DVD player.

First off the so so performance on the 970, is not nearly as good or even the same on the newer units... So don't be afraid, The 980 and 983 are far better just stock with red book CD if you have not heard them, and yes superior to all in the price for video as well... I don't think modding them is worth it, not only re-sale but more performance can be had simply using them as a good transport and adding a much more outboard external DAC, this also allows for you to choose not only on using the transport, but possibly if you have a DAC with USB you can take advantage of all the newer ideas and formats from the PC based audio in the future as well...

Sounds good, but actually we might get very lucky and oppo corrects their current USB input on the units in the next generation allowing them to work as a standalone dac with any other transport or PC format and the internal optical drive…Along with blu ray, this is nothing new, many units from Wadia, and like Quad cd players have Digital inputs as well as outputs.

So then you got the best all in one for good price playing all formats including the SACD, Red book, DVD-A, HDCD, Blu ray etc… Along with any ipod or pc you want to hook into it simply still using the same dac inside the unit feeding your one pair of Left and Right analog RCA's to the preamp.

That’s kinda what I am waiting on, if it does not happen, than I will be adding a good priced USB dac myself and use the oppo as a transport, and as for blu ray add a cheap machine if necessary, but I think OPPO will kill several birds with one stone in the next 2 years for under 500 bucks. They seem to listen to the consumer very closely on this and have come thru for the most part in the digital wars so far.

Oh and if oppo is reading maybe a headphone jack would be nice too :-)

Well its faster than I thought... Here it is...

http://gizmodo.com/5046217/oppo-bdp+s83-blu+ray-player-may-be-first-almost-universal-disc-reader

There is a side benefit not normally mentioned to a standalone dac, its simple, the DAC quite honestly may not be much better than the internal ones on many machines, in fact in some ways might be worse, and having the extra cables etc… Don't help either, HOWEVER they are guaranteed Isolated and separate power supplies from your whirring mechanical transport being fed in the other machine on the shelf :-)