I don't understand why you would want 90's era digital technology in 2011. Without putting a price tag to the Levinson 39 to match up to current DACS... this is a theoretical debate... (I don't know of any blanket advice on choosing between old digital gear and the new digital pieces in)
When you compare the sound quality difference between 90's era digital technology and 2010 technology with different output stages, power supplies, reliability strictly by reputation... you are forced to compare the dollar values you assign to each piece. That's tough unless you do a lot of this kind of thing or one piece is completely undervalued. It does not sound like you are going to be buying and selling lots of equipment as part of the hobby.
I would think a modern DAC would allow you to use high resolution formats and choosing a DAC that does this with files stored on your server would eliminate a 90's era DAC.
The other important question is,"would the rest of my system be resolving enough to distinguish a difference".
When you compare the sound quality difference between 90's era digital technology and 2010 technology with different output stages, power supplies, reliability strictly by reputation... you are forced to compare the dollar values you assign to each piece. That's tough unless you do a lot of this kind of thing or one piece is completely undervalued. It does not sound like you are going to be buying and selling lots of equipment as part of the hobby.
I would think a modern DAC would allow you to use high resolution formats and choosing a DAC that does this with files stored on your server would eliminate a 90's era DAC.
The other important question is,"would the rest of my system be resolving enough to distinguish a difference".