Modern dacs seem to be much more immune to jitter, than the ones made 10 or 15 years ago. Better input receiver chips, Asynchronous Sampling Rate Converters (ASRC) - they all contribute to the better sound.
Nowadays, shopping in sub $2000 price range, I would probably spend 70-80% on the DAC (as opposed to 50/50 15 years ago), as that would give you the best bang for the buck. Basicly - any CDP with digital output will do, even a legacy one (DVD players are not that good, as they often fail to provide a bit perfect data at the digital output).
Will a better transport sound better ? Sure. But the same amount of money spent on a better dac would give you even bigger improvement.
Nowadays, shopping in sub $2000 price range, I would probably spend 70-80% on the DAC (as opposed to 50/50 15 years ago), as that would give you the best bang for the buck. Basicly - any CDP with digital output will do, even a legacy one (DVD players are not that good, as they often fail to provide a bit perfect data at the digital output).
Will a better transport sound better ? Sure. But the same amount of money spent on a better dac would give you even bigger improvement.