If I only use headphones, a BluRay player would not perform differently from CD players as a transport? Is a $100 BluRay player capable of transporting SACD to DAC?
Like I said, if it's about vibrations, there's not really much point in using a dedicated CD transport over a video disc transport with headphones. For example, my Marantz CD60's bass sounds noticeably tighter when I put weights on it, but that's on my speaker system. Hook up headphones directly to its amp or a headphone amp, and the books I stacked on it don't make a difference. The only possible explanation (I would of course not take psychoacoustics completely out of the equation) is that the vibrations from speakers, not from the disc spinning on its own, is the problem, and headphones don't throw a lot of soundwaves at high dBs all around the room, with some of them hitting the chassis of the CDP.
As for DSD stream, I can't be certain. Some would, some don't - it's hard to tell with the really cheap ones. You might want to look into audio servers, essentially CDPs with internal HDDs or memory (USB, SD cards)/connectivity (LAN or even WLAN for NAS drives, also for using a tablet or smartphone as a remote control, with the same interface as a computer music player), as some of them might be capable of sending out DSD.
BTW, there is a USB DAC for computers that decodes only DSD, and has an analogue pass-through so you can integrate it between a DAC or CDP that decodes your PCM recordings and the amp/s, and it's only $150.
http://www.schiit.com/products/loki
For the CD players, I am actually not considering the entry level such as CD5004, but some higher-end players such as yamaha CD-S1000, Marantz SA-8005 (or SA-15S2) costing around $1000-1500. Is it a better option than buying a $300 CD transport (or BluRay player) and $800 DAC?
If they have digital inputs, then I'd say sure, go right ahead. Otherwise, you'll eventually run into every reason why we've moved to computers, audio servers, heck even tablets/smartphones* with a DAC and away from CDPs - the transport being a mechanical device will break before the rest of it does, and you might have trouble finding someone within driving (much less train ride) distance who can fix it. I've had my fair share of transports breaking on me and that's the reason why, unless I can get some CDPs that I really like used, cheap, and has a (reliable) local dealer that can service them, like Cayin (my personal faves - CD50T and CDT23), Shanling, and Musical Fidelity, I've managed to avoid getting any, despite the fact that I still buy physical discs and keep them on my shelf (and read the album notes, look at the album art, etc on my first listen).
*Like mine, although this only does 16/44.1 FLAC
And...How do you think of Shanling DAC?
I've tried many of their products, and I consider them good, although my personal favorite ever since I got to listen to them is still Cayin. I don't even have a specific preference for tubes but at least the CDT23 (heck even the CD50T) doesn't have that stereotypical tube sound; the CDT23 has that "live performance" presentation that goes really well with speakers driven by a reasonably powerful amp.
Price isn't as relevant to headphones as you think. It helps to set them apart, yes, but they aren't always indicative of quality. Assuming someone else actually was willing to buy you those headphones, I'd ask them to buy the HD 600s since anything above that is a massive point of diminishing returns unless price-to-performance really is not a factor to you (as in the case of audiophiles). If you run those off of a PC, you don't really need an amp. Their impedance is high but they're sensitive headphones. Having worn HD 800s, they are very comfortable, but the sound is not worth over three times the price of the HD 600s to me.
I haven't tried the HD600 on the OPA-6152 equipped MSI motherboards yet (but that's what I'm getting for my next build) but on my current MSI motherboard the HD600 still kind of sucks compared to a really good amp. For someone on a budget, yeah I'll say even my iPad does a really good job of driving the HD600, but hook it up to my Cantate.2 and it's almost like a different headphone. Percussion has a lot more bite, and the details on the bass guitars come out more, and the individual notes are more audible too. I'm listening to them right now with my PC btw, because I don't want to stay in my bedroom where the amp is, because the weather is sooooo hot here right now and I try to cycle which room I'll be in throughout the day (and ergo, which A/C I'll use), and the bass notes on power/symphonic metal tracks are just a bit garbled on this motherboard. Also there are sharp edges on the treble and the midrange lacks body. It does get loud though - Windows volume is only at 50% right now and the A/C
and a stand fan are running (I point the A/C's output into the back of the fan, and then it throws it all the way across the room).
