Connect dac to Music Hall CD-25 or upgrade?

I disagree with the statement that an external dac won't do much to improve upon the sound of a lesser cd player. I have a Rotel RCD 971 and was auditioning integrated amps with it as a source. For fun the dealer connected it to an MSB Nelson dac III. Let me tell you , the difference was night and day. I also tried a Rega pLanet 2000 without a dac (which is supposedly quite a good player), but there was simply no comparison. The dealer also had a cheap universal player from Pioneer which was connected to the nelson dac... this setup also blew away the Planet 2000 in every way...depth, dynamics, soundstaging, blackness, detail retreival...

I took the Nelson home. Simple as that.

upgrade the power cord is a great idear..music hall uses a phillips transport .its a great transport .so many other people use it in there cd players to so keep the player.as to a dac get the msb link dac 3...i did and like it a lot i listen to the same kind of music you do ...there are alot of them for sale now on here.get 24/96 upgrade...you already have hdcd with that player .....i did upgrade my power supply for this unit...and get some good cables digiflux are doing great for me ....your looking at about a 400.00 to 600.00 dollars to do this if it dont work sale it on here again every body else does.......i think you will like it ........but thats my thoughts on this .......save the other money to bye something else

The Music Hall is a 24/96, would getting the MSB 24/96 provide any benefit?

Matty

I just wanted to add my two cents worth; as I also use the Music Hall MMF CD-25 in my system. My set-up pairs McIntosh electronics with Thiel 3.5 speakers.
I'm really glad that the power cord upgrade was mentioned above; as I will give it a try soon and see if it makes an improvement.
Mainly what I wanted to say, was that I got a "loaner" of a friend's Theta Miles while he was out of town - and the overall improvement over the Music Hall was subtle but very real. So your desire to get a better source may be well founded.
As I'm also looking to eventually upgrade my two of my sources - tuner and CD - I would start with the power cord upgrade; and see how it goes. And if there was not enough of an improvement - I would start looking at my CD options again. Good luck and happy listening.

the dac in the music hall is a 24/96.when you use it as a transport its not 24/96.any time you can upgrade the dac, its going to be fun to hear the differ..remember this is a hobby. get a msb its low priced and upgradable,and if it blows you away,get a better one. any time you can get sep componants to do there on job,its going to be better.start with the power cord upgrade first .it doesnt cost much and it may help player out alot.build one yourself its fun and easy ..then look for dac.a sep transport is better but chances are it will have same phillips or sony drive in it any way.what interconnects are you using?