When you say transport you aren't mentioning a D.A converter you have in mind.Big world of CD red Book players like Electrcompniet.Musical Fidelity,Gamut,Esoteric. etc etc.Plus you don't metion if you want more than red book performance for SACD or DVD-A etc.Plus new formats dopwn the pike.Guess seperate boxes give you advantage of incorporating new format (Blue Ray whatever) IF it comes down line should be backwars compatible with bit stream but the trend for high end plkayers has been for a number of technical reasons to cut down distortion but thjat preclused "the latest and greatest".Me?I agree with most folks who m,ight look for a multi player or even go twp pieces because they want to be ready but think of how many regular Red Book CD's you have an will continue to have so I think looking at say and Ayre
CD player is beter than two piece rig.I might get best Sony made and it will allow for CD and SACD so maybe later when a new format comes out I might want to swapo.But Sony has a reasonable price and an A+ rating in Stereophile and plays CD's well and SACD's superbly.My vote one piece box with good red book performance.
Chazzbo