DAC's ?

try one of these great sound for short money
http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtlconv&1263686497&/Msb-Technology-Link-24-bit/96

Not with those buying terms.

why would you want an older DAC, there is no upside in that? Since DAC's are 95% technology, and prices have really fallen, I would suggest you get a new one and take advantage of that.

Some very reasonably priced ones are: MHDT Labs Paradisea, Cambridge Audio DacMagic

Musical Fidelity offers a very affordable unit called the V-DAC. It's also quite small - a plus if you are space- limited as I am. Another Audiogon member highly recommends Beresford's TC 7520. Good luck.

I have the Rotel 855 & it's a decent player, having the TDA1541A. I tried it with a DAC but the digital out was bad, which made the next move easy. I replaced the analog out jacks with much better quality pieces. There wasn't enough room for the new RCA's, so I used the hole where the digital out jack was for the left out. If you take a look at the construction & materials of the stock RCA's, you'll see why this should be done.

I also cut off the power cord & attached a male IEC jack so I could use a better powercord. I usually install an IEC jack but was too lazy. I'll get around to it soon.

I was using this as an interim player but with these simple mods, I've decided it's good enough for now.

I will just leave the 855 the way it is. It was a dirt cheap find, and super clean, so just another toy. From what I am seeing, with some patience, and some timing, I can get a very nice newer CDP for not much more then many of the DAC's I am seeing for sale. I am not in a position to spend $$$$ on this stuff. And I never would if I was. But thanks for the input. I noticed a couple of Musical Fidelity Units that sold on here for what I thought were pretty reasonable prices. I did see this which was cheap enough to play with, http://cgi.ebay.com/Mini-HIFI-SPDIF-OPTICAL-DAC-PCM1793-DIR9001-OPA2134_W0QQitemZ280424676642QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item414a9cfd22.

I got mine for free & it benefited from a 1 hour upgrade using parts I already had.

I see you already found the ebay stuff, as that is what I was going to recommend next.

I would suggest checking out the archives not only here but on other audio sites to see what you can come up with. Doing your homework will yield the best results.

Perprtual 3A or Musical Fidelity A3-24.Both sound great, are fairly recent and can be had for less than $400.My favorite cheap/old DAC was the Soundstream DAC 1.They were designed in conjunction with Krell Digital and still sound good today!

One things for sure. The 855 doesn't need much. Very nice sounding unit. At least through my very modest setup.
Seems like Soundstream is mostly car audio.
I think I would save my pennies and get an older Musical Fidelity Unit. I really like the look of their CDP's. And they are very reasonably priced. But I will land a a good DAC soon.

The 855 was a highly thought of,good sounding and recommended player.It was subject to foot fault(skipping if not isolated from floor vibrations).Soundstream tried to get into the home theater/home audio market in the late 80's or early 90's.They had a line of slim profile amps and components.The DAC 1 was the sweet spot in the line-up.