Good CDTransport (player) without DAC?

I use the CXC in my headphone system, which started out as a budget system but has evolved away from what I would consider as one now, with that said I love it and would recommend it especially for the price of less than $400.00 new and is the cheapest piece of gear I have in that system. Haven't compared it to an older Wadia Transport I have in my main system but would guess it would fair well. Only complaint I have would be it doesn't pair with my Schitt Gumby, it clicks when paused but that is an issue with the Gumby not the Cambridge. Enjoy the music

Thank you all for the info and thanks twoleftears on the heads up on the Cyrus.  After some more “studying”, I have narrowed it down to the Audiolab 6000 CDt and the CXC.  Probably go with the 6000...  Thanks again.
Best!
lostnamerica

The single best transport you can buy at ANY price is, sadly, not presently being manufactured. But if you can find one in a dealer’s inventory jump on it. It’s the PS Audio DMP player. They were sourcing their drives from OPPO which closed up shop, so until they can find another transport drive as reliable they’ve held off making more units. It will blow your mind. 

Thanks for all your great replays so far. I am not an expert, so i really appreciate your input. From the view of a dummy I actually learnt thats its really not easy to „just play a CD“ - so i have another question. 

1) Skip CDs and stream: How about focusing on a good streamer and a good dac, and just use Tidal and Qobuz digital music? I guess the masters files come from studios, so even no CD in the chain. And maybe some other songs come from CD which they have transfered to digital files, but hopefully with perfect CD reading equipment. Is this a way to get better sound or will a CD still win the race?

2) Whats the best output of a CD transport to minimize jitter? I learnt here from „itsjustme“ the complication with jitter, and that coax or optical are not great in that. How about this I2S output, as timing and sound are separated? Will the dac eg my Elac DD2 take over the control with his great clock or will there be no difference to optical?

Cheers
peter

Try Audio Research CDT-1.  No, they're not manufactured anymore, but are 'tank-tough,' built to lofty standards, look beautiful still (at least to me) and have numerous playback modes and a have decent display.  It doesn't' have a USB port though if that's important to you.  I think they're going for 600-800 USD in the used market.