May I suggest the Lampizator Dac, which I found to wipe the floor with AR, Meitner, Weiss, you name it? I still have to demo it against MSB and Nagra, but will do so shortly. However, the creator (Lukasz) is getting rave reviews for his Transport as well, which is a tubular transport for digital files (instead of the HD). At 1800, people seem to have sold their Linn 7k ones immediately on listening to it. My first choice before the Lampi was the Esoteric CD/SACD/Dac
People have also been Lampizatoring other CDs and Dacs, for those whom budget is an issue. Apparently one can buy a used 100 quid player and follow Lukasz's instructions from his blog on changing power supplies and capacitors to produce some great sounds.
I have also had excellent service from them. I just ordered a Lampi (Justin already has one), and the dealer advised me not to get an Oppo for DVD, instead he has asked Lukasz to mod a used Toshiba DVD for me and assures me it will be much better than Oppo.
All I can say is try it out. There are lots of guys on audiocircle as well modding, and just call a dealer and ask him to send you a demo piece of the Transport or the Dac. To me at least, it sounds better than any CD I have heard, and that includes Esoteric and Audio Research CD9. Also thanks to its built in pre, I am not buying the Ref 3, running it directly to my Ref 110, it's so good