Parasound P 5 DAC vs. CD players

I have not compared the P5 to CD players per se, but I can tell you that it's an excellent DAC and preamp for the price. I had the P5 before, then I saw a great deal on a Cambridge Audio Azur 851D DAC at Audio Advisor (original price was $1695, marked down to $999), so I foolishly returned the P5 to Audio Advisor and bought the Cambridge 851D instead. Big mistake!

I can tell you that the Parasound P5 was heads and shoulders above the Cambridge for sure, and quite a bit better than the Rotel 1570 preamp that I had before. You get HT bypass, bass/subwoofer management and tone controls (with bypass). The Cambridge with all it's gimmicks doesn't even come close to it. I'm still kicking myself for my mistake.

@adg101  I completely agree with you that my assessment of the 851D was a bit premature. After putting about 50 hours on the Cambridge, the sound is definitely improving, and I hope that it continues to get better. I am told that it takes at least 100 hours for the burn in. So keeping my fingers crossed :)

However, I would say that the P5 is no slouch either. For $1095, you're getting bass management, HT bypass and a phono stage in addition to a decent DAC. Right now, I don't find the Cambridge 851D to be much superior to the P5, but I guess I should reserve my judgment for another 50 hours or so.

By the way, the rest of my system is Bowers and Wilkins CM10 s2 qne Parasound A21. So far, I am using inexpensive AudioQuest cables (I think I paid around $60) and XLR connector. I plan to slowly add better speaker cables, followed by power cord.

adj101, your post is very timely as I was about to ask for suggestions regarding the next steps to improve my system. I've already settled on speakers, amp and preamp/DAC. 

I wasn't sure if I should first upgrade speaker cables, power cords or interconnect. Based on your suggestion, looks like speaker cable upgrade should be higher on the list.

I was thinking of AQ Rocket 88 that I can get for around $400 used. But Clear Day looks like a viable option and well within my budget. I need to decide which would be a better fit for my system. I really don't want to spend more than $700-800 this year on the system.

Another thing that I'm wondering about is the source. Since I'm streaming music (iMac --> iTunes --> Airplay/streaming --> Apple TV --> TosLink --> Cambridge 851D), I wonder if this is where I should start. I understand the limitations of Apple TV when used as an audio-only appliance (sample rate conversions, etc). I'm looking at Bluesound Node 2 as a possible alternative. 

So the question is which is more important, better streamer or speaker cables, keeping in mind that eventually I'll end up upgrading both.