If your budget allows $1200, the OPPO BDP-105 is a STEAL at that price. It blows away most others that are as much as $8000.

The Marantz CD5004 Is very good for only $350 or so (CD only; no DAC). $279 at Amazon.

The OPPO BDP-103 is very good for $500 and has a good DAC.

sf5512 wrote:

1.what cd player and DAC would you get on a budget???
2. what CD player without a DAC would you get on a budget??

Hi, sf5521.
I am not quite sure I understand your question.

Terminology can sometimes get in the way when attempting to get accurate information.

A DAC is the acronym for a Digital to Analog Converter.
This is the device that converts the digital format of the audio track to an analog signal that is appropriate for sending to a power amplifier.

Every CD player has a DAC in it.
The CD disc is spinning like an LP record on the ‘Transport’ in the CD player.
A laser ‘reads’ the data (1’s & 0’s) from the CD, then sends the data to the DAC, which converts it to an analog signal.

Some CD players have outputs for both the analog signal (which has been converted by the internal DAC in the CD player) & a digital output.
The digital output by-passes the internal DAC in the CD player.
This digital output (which contains the raw data as 1’s & 0’s which are encoded on the CD), can be fed to an external (stand-alone) DAC which (hopefully) provides better sound quality.

External (stand-alone) DAC’s are also popular for use music files that are stored on a computer or other data storage devices.

Then there are also transports.
You might think of a transport as being a CD player without a DAC.
Transports do nothing but spin the CD disc & read the raw encoded data from the CD.
Transports output digital signal only which needs input to a DAC in order to produce an analog signal.

I truly hope my explanations are clear & of some help.

Bill - on the Hill
Practicing Curmudgeon & Audio Snob
- just an “ON” switch, Please –