Old digital that still kicks butt

The Linn CD12 from 1999 is one of the best sounding digital players that I can remember. I recently heard a Chord Hugo TT/MScaler which didn't sound close to being as musical as a CD12, let alone a mid-90s Marantz CD63 SE

Old digital sounding good? Seriously? I certainly have not been exposed to everything... but I have followed the industry and bought high end digital since the beginning. A few years ago I found my Nakamichi CD player... I must have listened to it for five or six seconds before yanking it out and literally throwing it in the trash. Latter I had bought a tube CD player that was warm and not digital, but had no amount of detail. I remember an early DAC that hurt my ears. Wow, maybe there was something out there, I sure never heard it.

My Teac VRDS 25X from 2004 sounds wonderful, dont think I need to upgrade anytime soon.

After a 10+ year hiatus from 2-channel audio (I was focused on home theater), I decided about nine years ago to set up a system in my home office. I had a Levinson No 39 CD player that I had purchased in the late 90s. The drawer was pretty flakey, but I was able to hook it up to my computer using a USB to SPDIF converter.

The No 39 was a very well regarded DAC/CD Player in it's day, but I figured that DACs had likely improved a lot in the intervening 15 years. Also, the USB to SPDIF converter was kind of flakey.

So, based on excellent reviews, I bought a Wyred4Sound DAC-2. Well, I gave this DAC several months to see if it would break-in and/or I could get used to the sound, but to no avail. It just sounded thin and strident compared to my ML. So, out went the DAC-2.

Several years later, I finally tried another DAC. This time, an Yggy A2. This DAC was a clear improvement over the No. 39 in almost every way. And my current Denafrips Terminator Plus is significantly better yet.

So, while I think good quality older DACs can still deliver decent sound, a good modern DAC offers pretty significant improvements. 

Bitwise Musik System Zero DAC fed by a Monarchy Audio DT-40A transport connected via AES/EBU connection.