DAC's ?

why would you want an older DAC, there is no upside in that? Since DAC's are 95% technology, and prices have really fallen, I would suggest you get a new one and take advantage of that.

Some very reasonably priced ones are: MHDT Labs Paradisea, Cambridge Audio DacMagic

Musical Fidelity offers a very affordable unit called the V-DAC. It's also quite small - a plus if you are space- limited as I am. Another Audiogon member highly recommends Beresford's TC 7520. Good luck.

I have the Rotel 855 & it's a decent player, having the TDA1541A. I tried it with a DAC but the digital out was bad, which made the next move easy. I replaced the analog out jacks with much better quality pieces. There wasn't enough room for the new RCA's, so I used the hole where the digital out jack was for the left out. If you take a look at the construction & materials of the stock RCA's, you'll see why this should be done.

I also cut off the power cord & attached a male IEC jack so I could use a better powercord. I usually install an IEC jack but was too lazy. I'll get around to it soon.

I was using this as an interim player but with these simple mods, I've decided it's good enough for now.

I will just leave the 855 the way it is. It was a dirt cheap find, and super clean, so just another toy. From what I am seeing, with some patience, and some timing, I can get a very nice newer CDP for not much more then many of the DAC's I am seeing for sale. I am not in a position to spend $$$$ on this stuff. And I never would if I was. But thanks for the input. I noticed a couple of Musical Fidelity Units that sold on here for what I thought were pretty reasonable prices. I did see this which was cheap enough to play with, http://cgi.ebay.com/Mini-HIFI-SPDIF-OPTICAL-DAC-PCM1793-DIR9001-OPA2134_W0QQitemZ280424676642QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item414a9cfd22.

I got mine for free & it benefited from a 1 hour upgrade using parts I already had.

I see you already found the ebay stuff, as that is what I was going to recommend next.

I would suggest checking out the archives not only here but on other audio sites to see what you can come up with. Doing your homework will yield the best results.