I can't imagine that the Rotel 970 would be "bad" as a transport. I thought it made a pretty good stand alone player when I auditioned it anyway. I use a CAL player as a transport with a Bel Canto DAC which sounds good to me. I borrowed a Meridian 506.24 player out of curiosity as to what the improvement would be (with my DAC) and the only difference that I could hear was "maybe" a little fuller bass and could not tell any difference in the mids and highs. I don't have very much experience in this area, but this little exercise made me content with what I have for now. I have decided to wait and see if SACD takes off before I look for another player/transport. Perhaps you could borrow a better (or more highly regarded) player or transport and see what difference it does make in your system before you lay down your money? Sorry that this really doesn't answer you question, but I was very surprised at the lack of sonic difference between the units when they were used as a transports only. The Bel Canto is supposed to reduce Jitter on its own, so maybe this could partly explain the close call.
