Digital Sources

Bel Canto is excellent! I don't think you can go wrong with their products.
Are you buying new?

Both would be new, and reasonably priced.  My question is because a transport just spins the discs, whether I would be justified in spending 4 to 5 times the amount of it would cost to buy the Bel Canto transport to buy a well received and respected higher priced transport, or put that m money into an expensive DAC?

A few months ago I had the same decision point (transport v dac).  After a lot of research and listening to different transports, I decided to go with a an Onkyo CD changer for approx. $140 (gf likes changers) as a transport only with a digital out going into a separate DAC (at that time a Jolida tube DAC).

I listened to Cambridge and an Oppo units (used as transports) and compared it with the Onkyo and could hear no difference into the same external DAC, so I decided spending money on a (more) expensive transport was not worth it to my ears.

I'm no expert, but I have read that the only real issue to be concerned about with a CD transport is jitter.   Using this thinking, most newer DACs reclock in the DAC itself, so jitter from a transport would be (generally) immaterial if using a newer DAC.   If using an older DAC, you could consider a reclocker. 

In any event, I couldn't hear a difference in transports.  YMMV, IMHO, etc.