best cd player to get??

Have you considered a good DAC/Player combo? You could pick up a Rega or Centrance DAC and add a new or used player as transport. This would beat out many stand-alone players and give you greater flexibility down the road.

If you still prefer a stand alone player, the Rega Apollo is slick and the versatile Oppo 95 has most people pretty happy. You'll find it it pretty hard to find a "bad" player. I find the range to start at "excellent" and work it's way up, depending on system synergy.

Cheers,

Rob

Easy. Naim Cd5i. Slaughters anything in that price range.

a refurb sony 595, often available on SonyStyle for about $60 with free shipping. Yes it has great sound, SACD's too, and if you don't like it SonyStyle will come get it for a full refund.

Music Direct is blowing out the older model Rega Apollo for $700 with free shipping. The new Apollo is $1100. Considering your budget, I'm not sure you will really get any more performance until you reach the $3K range. Also, remember you're getting a brand new players with warranty, which is a nice thing if something goes wrong.

actually i'm not too familiar with DAC's.....does it basically just turn your cd player into a line out, and then the dac does all the beautification to the music??

if so that does sound interesting.