Looking for a CD / SACD player. Also, tell me about Esoteric

The Oppo and Magnestar players are inexpensive players.  They are not in the same league as the Esoteric players.  Teac now makes a great player with the Esoteric VRDS  transport for around $3500.00. The only thing I don’t like about it are the rack handles.  

good point about repairs, I bought a belt kit and

this being available helped me decide

Complete xa5400es Laser Assembly

Knowing you could buy another used one if it breaks, still hard to beat it's sound, and a few around $1k each add up to far less than your budget. 

I bought a spare remote control when 1 popped up with low price.

@stereo5 

+1 correct, Oppo and Magnestar are not in the same league.

Esoteric  SACD and CD players our very good one box units. Even if you find a better DAC you can still use the Esoteric player as a transport. To get a better DAC you will have to spend some money. Not that Esoteric is cheap.

Please correct me if I’m wrong- no more Oppo, no more Sony, etc as to getting a more or less cheap transport and using a nice D/A converter?

That is what I do. I get DSD and PCM out of my Oppo ($200) and into my DACs. I have tested with Benchmark DAC3B and the Schitt Yggi+ OG and LIM.

Amazon.com: GeerFab Audio - D.BOB Digital Breakout Box : Electronics

They sell this unit at very high-end audio shops like Upscale Audio.in LA.

I wrote about this in other threads.