I upgraded my McCormack DAC1 to Steve McCormack's Ultra DAC & am using his SST-1 transport. It only plays Redbook cd's, but to my tin ears sounds as good as my Ayre C5xe MP playing SACD or DVD-A. MSRP on Stereophile class A Ayre is 6k but it sells used around $2500 - $2800. Steve said Ultra DAC is a step up from UDP1 Deluxe for Redbook play. Fellow I bought Ayre from loves his AMR77, but also was on look out for DCS Puccini. AMR77 is about $5k used & Puccini $7 - 8k. Digital/computer downloads are changing so fast & prices coming down everyday. Maybe you should wait a year to upgrade.
