Oppo as transport

If you use jitter rejecting DACs like Benchmark then DVD player is a good transport - excellent tracking (and cheap).

Some DVD players might be not "bit transparent" (with digital volume control etc) while some others like my Sony have absolutely crazy logic (other than that good player). Every time I send command stop, play, open it displays it for 5 sec before starting execution. At start-up displays "Welcom" for 10 sec - it drives me crazy. Check also how noisy it is.

Yes you cannot get cleaner than clean but you might dirty the signal. Expensive cables use foamed oversized teflon to lower dielectric constant, zero crystal 7N silver or copper, double shileding (foil and braid), have capacitance in order of 5pF/ft and inductance of 0.02uH/ft. Stereophile that you mentioned highly regards expensive cables and I wouldn't say they are out of their minds.

Yes I've heard similar arguments about super $1/ft cables from Home Depot and diabolic secret arrangements between reviewers and manufacturers. Somebody even suggested that millions of audiophiles enjoying expensive cables must be under some kind of hypnosis. I can only say that I had $10, $100 and $1k speaker cables and there is a huge difference. What is happening inside of the cable is extremely complicated and I don't know what makes sound "silky" for example or why some interconnects add bass extension.
As for reviews in Stereophile - nothing is bad in absolute terms but they are pointing to differences between different brands like "This speaker has better extension but is more forward and has less precise imaging". I'm not saying that puting $1k into cables is better than into speakers but it's wise to put about 10% of total value into cables. There is a difference.

Audphile - Your are right. I won't mention cables again.

Audphile - let me answer point number 4 of your original post. Dedicated transports, often very expensive, offer very low jitter of digital signal. Average cheap player exhibits up to 3ns peak jitter what corresponds to about -85dB in sidebands it creates. Sidebands are very audible in-spite of extremely low levels, because they are not harmonically related to root frequencies. It creates "fuzzy" sound.
Many modern Dacs like Benchmark DAC1 have jitter suppression built in and almost completely ignore jitter (Benchmark has 3 Hz jitter bandwidth). Other than jitter and better mechanics I don't know of any other difference between expensive dedicated transport and cheap DVD player as long as it is bit transparent. DVD player might even have better tracking.

Audphile - Benchmark should not be sensitive to cables at least in theory. Early Benchmark used Phillips OP-Amps before factory burned down. After that Texas Instr. bought license and started making them with increased die size. Phillips OP-Amps sounded tiny while TI amps sound rounder. Early Benchmarks had way to high output impedance on RCA outputs. I'm not advertising Benchmark - according to review in Stereophile newer Bel Canto DAC sounds a little better (more organic) but costs twice more. I think I heard something as well about built-in jitter suppression. Be sure that you take this into account. Dual PLL and FIFO buffers won't help if internal clock has jitter.

My Benchmark serves as preamp as well driving power amp directly - it saves a lot of money (preamp, ICs) and simplifies - less is better.

Audphile - It was DAC3 that Stereophile reviewed in November 2007. Read below:

Against the benchmark Benchmark
The Benchmark DAC1 has set the standard for affordable D/A processor performance for three years now, and has recently been updated to add a USB input. I will be reporting on the new version in a Follow-Up, but for this review, I compared the Bel Canto e.One DAC3 with the original version of the Benchmark DAC1, which I had purchased after writing about it.

To permit instantaneous comparisons, I fed the Ayre C-5xe's AES/EBU output first to the Levinson No.30.5, then from that processor's two AES/EBU data outputs to the two DACs under test using identical lengths of Madrigal AES/EBU cable. Levels were matched to within 0.05dB at 1kHz by keeping the Bel Canto's output at its maximum and reducing the Benchmark's with its analog level control.

No doubt about it, the Benchmark DAC1 is still an excellent-sounding product, with well-extended, well-defined lows, a natural midrange, and clean highs. And, of course, it doubles its utility by having two pairs of headphone outputs. But the Bel Canto DAC3 scored with its slightly silkier high frequencies and its wider, deeper soundstage.