I bought an Emotiva ERC 4 CD player. Its $600. It has an excellent DAC. I think you would be surprised with the quality of the sound you get with the built-in DAC. Why not try it. It comes with it for free. I upgraded to an Ares II and it sounds better, not night and day better, but noticeably better. I also noticed an improvement with Audioquest interconnects. My advice is get the ERC 4 and new speakers. If you don't like it add the Ares II.
Will a new Dac improve the sound?
I have an older CD player( Cary CDP1) . It sounds good ,but would a new or used Dac in the line improve the sound? Looking at Dacs in the $600 - $1200 range. I know the other equipment would also matter in the outcome, but as a general question......do you think this would be an upgrade to the sound? Or should i go another route?
GP