Upsampling/Advice on Transport

You have a very nice player. Were you panning it to finance the rest? If not having SF retro fit it seems like a good option. I had thought of going with some of the less expensive players to use as a transport such as the Aiwa mentioned but enjoy the solid build and reliability (never a problem) of my old CAL player, which I now use as a transport.

"Were you planning on selling it to finance the rest?" - big typo.

Dekay: I was thinking of selling it, but I may keep the SFCD-1 for a second system. It's about $700 to have a digital output added, and frankly I've never had the sense that the transport on the SFCD-1 was anything special. Audio Advisor has a Parasound CDP1000 on sale for $249...I'm thinking that the transport in that unit is probably as good (or almost as good) as the SFCD-1. Any thoughts? Also, any sense as to whether using the MSB Link Dac III will give me sound that is superior to my SFCD-1? I've always liked the sound of the SFCD-1, but still find CD's played on it tiring on the ears compared to analog. I was hoping that the MSB unit would give me something closer to analog.

Many of the CDP1000's have transport failure down the line. I was told this by a salesman that I was going to purchase one from and he knew that this was the only item that they carried that I was interested in, so I beleive him. I do not find the MSBIII to be an improvement over my stock CAL Icon Mk II for the same reasons that you find your player not good for the long run. I have only listened to your player one time and liked the sound but I did not live with it which is the true test for many things in life:-) I am now using my CAL with a Bel Canto DAC and find that I can fine tune the highs, mids and lows with isolation devices and platforms. I am not using anything expensive, just Vibrapods, Mapleshade Surefeet cones and MDF and Maple platforms (the Maple one is my good cutting board for the time being). I would tinker with these before I bought any more gear. I first started with a set of Vibrapods and an MDF platform (total cost $27.00) which considerably tamed the highs and increased detail as well. Check out some of the "shelf material" threads at the site and you will get a lot of ideas. I also replaced the stock cord on my player with an inexpensive upgrade which also made a nice improvement in the sound. I am in to cheap tweaks and spending a lot of time setting the gear up properly in order to squeeze out the last drop of performance (with reasonably priced tweaks). After this is done I am either satisfied or I move on. The isolation components will always come in handy and improve the sound of most anything that you use. You can try them under your speakers as well (or just one speaker if you buy one set for the player) abd see if you like the sound. I also buy new gear but get a sense of acomplishment from improving the sound of what I have and it costs less. It's a win/win situation for me as tinkering with the stuff is my hobby and the music just gets better and more involving as well.

Transports make a musically significant difference and can be heard through any upsampler/jitter reducer I have ever heard - same for the cable running into it. That Parasound transport sounds smooth and congealed - cannot understand why anybody would like it except to tame something wrong elsewhere in their system. While there is a lot of stuff I have not heard, my experience tells me that the SFCD1 will better almost ANY dac in the world when that DAC is driven by the likes of the Pioneer 525 and other cheap transports - unless of course you do not the subtle and gentle way in which the SFCD1 does its thing. DACs seem to get all the attention because they are flavoured, a bit like preamps are. But transports are like power amps - the differences are less obvious in a brief audition, but getting a musical transport (as for an amp) is not easy or cheap. This is just my experience, but my experience also tells me to take what Sam Tellig says with a bucket full of salt.