based upon my listening experience I have little doubt the BDA-1 will also make the short list of recommended components

Though I'm currently looking at the new Ayre CX-5e MP, I'm having a difficult time believeing I'll find anything out there...short of something in the MBL, dCS, etc... category, that will substantially best the BDA-1.
Next, how about rolling up your sleeves and getting to work on a "Reference-grade" cd player with dual R-core transformers, TEAC VRDS sled, DSP-based 32X oversampling, "apodizing" filtering & HDCD decoding....all feeding the new ESS Sabre32 DAC!
you already have the analog output stage ready to go!!!
I'll be waiting...
to keep things realistic....the DSP oversampling with apodizing filtering would be a huge step forward imo
