CD player

Read the reviews in StereoPhile, Absolute Sound, Hi-fi ET. Or Google 10 best CD players of 2020, 2019......

Budget.

That is tough. Budget. Do you use an external DAC? An external DAC can make or break a CD player/transport IMHO. If no external DAC then buy the best CD player you afford.

it needs to sound really good

guess if you are into sacd, then get one that plays em

rest hardly matters

Thank you for responding.

You might consider going the separate DAC route as you’ll have even more choices and can use it with a streamer if you end up eventually exploring that world.  Anyway, that’s what I’d do.  If you share what sound qualities that are most important to you it’ll get you more specific recommendations here if that’d be helpful.  Best of luck in your search. 

Thank you, that helps.  A lot of this is new to me.

Louis, you still haven’t told us your budget...and you will get more responses if you post in the “Digital” forum...