Confused and out of touch a little over my CD play

I have not been involved much with my audio system for awhile for various reasons. I would like to make a few changes, starting with my CD player. I own a Rotel RCD 955ax. That was a well thought of cd player in it's day at that cost. I have had this a long time, and it still operates as new, they were well built.I'd probably like to stay at up to or under $1000.00

First thought is some kind of used DAC for maybe $300.00 used maybe more if this is a worthy step on a player this old, even a fine as it still works?? HDCD, should I care??

It seems As I read the archives, many here are still buying CD players. Jolida, Music Hall,AH!, even Rotel, and many others, seem to be the way to go for some. Again, should I even worry about HDCD ? There also seems to be a lot of mod units. I was always skeptical of a $99.00 unit with $300-400 dollars of mods, it's still a $99.00 CD player, that you just stuck $300.00 dollars in.

Lastly SACD. I don't really care about surround, but do have several SACD's. Actually companies like Audio Fidelity have a real nice Redbook layer on these discs, so I buy them.There is the Music Hall Maverick, then a host of universal players from $100.00 and up. It would seem the Marantz and the Denon are the popular choices. I'm really concerned with the 2 channel CD and SACD performance of these players.

So I'm kind of behind the curve here Dac, new modern CD player, or something that is also SACD qualified. It seems many here are just going for CD players, and maybe that is a good choice for now, especially if they will perform that much better then my old Rotel. Are 2 channels SACD's always going to be a HUGE improvement over currently well mastered CD's and a modern player ?