Cost is no object is easy, but....

melos ma333r/music director linestage - ($1.8k)

two electrocompaniet aw60's (for bi-amping) - ($1k)

newform research nhb645 - ($2.4k)

aragon 47k fono-stage - ($300)

updated oracle 'table w/origin-live dc-motor/o-l rega rb250 - ($1800)

ortofon mc-25fl - ($200)

subwoofer system w/a pair of vmps larger subs, marchand xm9-deluxe x-over, & the best cheap used s/s amp ewe can find (get the marchand x-over in the 3-way wersion for active x-over of the newforms)- ($2k)

this leaves only $500 for cabling, so bust the budget or get decent used inexpensive cabling like tara labs quantum iv i/c's & tara labs rsc prime 1000 speaker cabling.

happy listening! ;~) doug s.

This is a question near and dear to my heart as an Audiogon shopper.  Here is a set of components that I have personally purchased on this site (or US Audio Mart) at the prices set forth below, which I would confidently put up against anything above (on the digital side):

Cat JL-1 Amps ($4k)
Audio Synthesis Passion Passive Preamp ($500)
Merlin VSM-M Millennium (filter network set for tubes) ($2k)
CEC TL-1X ($2.2k)
Dodson DA-217 Mk2D ($1.3k)

Throw in some Kimber PBJ and 8TC cables and a Monster HTS-2000 power conditioner, and you are good to go.  If you don't like the digital setup, you can pick up an MBL 1531 CD player right now on Audiogon for $3500.  If you add another $1k to the budget, you can pick up an Audio Consulting Silver Rock TVC, and the system can easily compete with systems costing $75k or more.

Will post my analogue system shortly.

I have owned a lot of transports, dacs, preamps, amps(both tube and SS) and speakers over the decades

I own a Oppo 105, which plays all common disc media. I used it for SACD/DVD-A exclusively, using a highly moded Pioneer PD 65 with outboard PS and various dacs until it finally died about 2 years ago.  This forced me to replace the Pioneerand listen exclusively through the 105 until I bought a Marantz HDCD-1 to use as a transport, but also as a back up for when I was between pre/dacs.

The Marantz is fabulous value connected to the dac in my Audio Alchemy DDP-1 + PS 5. Somehow I came across a section on eBay that had a bunch of linear power supplies for the 105, its well known Achilles Heel is the oem power supply. One of the suppliers was smart enough to provide a very nice tutorial complete with lots of photos. He also sold a replacement for the IEC and jumpers to the PS board and a jumper to bypass the 110/220 switch. I started with the jumper: Furutech IEC with pure silver connector to the PS board, and the jumper. I was so shocked at the improvement that I then bought a LPM. In total cost was ~ $350 and my time.


Now, my system is differentially balanced, so I used the XLR outs from the 105 to my amp and took my pre/dac out of the system, and have not bothered to reinstall
hth

Its 2020 and I have never bought just a Dac.