Not sure if this is any help if you're after small, but just as general advice for others who'd like a cheap upgrade- DAT players are dirt cheap on ebay ATM. A few months ago I bought a Sony A8 for £41 off ebay. I originally bought it so that I could use my Sony TCD-D3 as my portable music player- in an iPod world I thought it'd be cool to bust out a portable DAT player on the tube and then ostentatiously put a tape into it while everyone else is juggling albums with an ipod wheel or touchscreen
.
Anyway I haven't sorted out a power supply for the portable DAT yet. But meanwhile I've plumbed the A8 into my home hi-fi system and fed it a coaxial feed from my crappy Targa DVD player as a transport- and it sounds
amazing....frankly, as a £1000 DAT player ought to.
If you've only got a cheap CD player and want a cost effective upgrade don't bother with a standalone DAC, just buy an old but quality DAT deck and hear the difference....
.