And if you add a jitter-reduction device at some point, it will diminish to some extent the importance of the player (used as transport). I think most bang for the buck is with a dac. Plus, they never wear out, which the mechanical players all eventually do. Good luck!
cdp vs. dac
Going with new system. As of now I know I will be using merlin tsm-mx for 5.1. Unsure of preamp I will be using, but will retain my cary cinema 5 amp. My question is should I buy a good quality cdp and go directly into my pre, say a $750 used cdp, or keep my sony cd/dvd and feed into a quality dac, similar price?