Add a DAC or buy a new CD player?

Although a good pre amp would be nice, the biggest improvement for your $1500 budget would be to buy one of the many excellent dacs for $1000 or less, such as EVS Millenium, Birdland Odeon Lite, Bel Canto Dac1 (used), or even modified MSB Link Dac. One of these dacs is far superior to any Rotel CDP dac. Preamp cannot "improve" the signal it is fed, the quality and design of your dac to accurately read and remove distortion from the digital signal is what makes the best CDPs sound more natural, this is where you should concentrate, Sam

hi megasam, i don't disagree w/your opinion, but i guess i tink that w/a $500 cd-player, ya got about 95% of what cd has to offer - that last 5% is *way* too expensive, until ya get closer to 95% w/a preamp - ymmv. regards, doug

Thanks for the tip, Doug, but I'm way too concerned about compromising the Aleph's superb synergy with my Aleph 2s to try that Muse. I tend to agree with Sam that I (and the thread-head) should concentrate on cleaning up the front end; I'm about to try one of Caterham's Neuance isolation platforms to see if I can clean up the top octaves a bit. (The guy who is Virtual Mode uses a damped Rotel as his reference front end for passive pre development...sheesh!...it's hard to know who to believe. I'll let you know what the platform does compared to an air bladder I'm currently using. Cheers.

Sounds like this guy needs a Res.Audio 50, 1500 used and skip the preamp.Sell the old unit;still close to budget.

If the money is burning a hole in your pocket you can get the Sony SACD 777 for about $1600, but you probably already know this. You can get some $$ for your Rotel and save on digital cable. I own it and it is good. But if the curiosity of SACD has not affected you (software selection sucks)save your money. Ric's new EVS DAC is about $800 and will likely be the one to beat, but there is a waiting list. There is no need to spend more. Had the MSB ($300!) and i was extremely pleased with it. Don't buy that highly modified MSB for over $1200! If I was to do it over I would still have my basic MSB and then get the DAC from Ric when it is available.