Most Reliable CDPs?

Top loaders obviate having to deal with failure of the drawer mechanism. Optical pickups (laser assembly) are not terribly costly to replace and have an average lifespan measured in tens of thousands of hours.

I've not owned a top loading player so don't know what choices are available in your price range.

Jb0194, I'd argue that replacing the entire drawer is a safer bet than simply changing out the laser head pickup by at least an order of magnitude. Laser heads are prone to instant (or, withing the first 72 hours of play) death via ESD (electrostatic discharge), and most people (including those who shold know better) that I see changing out the part simply do not follow the proper procedures (I've had several people tell me, "Yeah, that's true, but I know what I'm doing...").

Just about a year ago, I received an order for a case of Sony transports, and every one of the laser heads was dead - right out of the box from the primary Sony factory in China.

The laser head and/or servo board of the Sony transport assemblies used in most CD players is far more likely to fail than the drawer mechanisms, though the drawers are also far more failure prone than they should be so you are right there in that elimination of failure points can eliminate failure.

I would also put in a recommendation for the Esoteric. Nothing can beat a well designed and built transport/laser head assembly, and it sure seems like Esoteric deserves kudos here.

I'd also say that buying a high resolution player from a larger company such as Denon, Marantz, Pioneer, Sony, etc. seems like a good bet to me, as the average $99 DVD player from one of these companies bought in a big box store is probably two to three orders of magnitude more reliable than 95+% of the multikilobuck CD players from the high end audio CD player manufacturers. Funny, but I picked up a Samsung universal (CD, region free DVD-V, DVD-A, SACD) player a few years ago for $99 at Best Buy with the intention of having it modded (now, I'm thinking maybe a nice DAC), and even though it has been used primarily by children and adults with no concept of babying a machine as they play their DVDs, it has been the very definition of reliability.

Thanks to everybody for all the helpful thoughts so far. I will look very seriously at Esoteric, perhaps the SA-60.

I do have concerns about a noisy player-- my Jolida is chattery with many discs, and since I listen often at low volumes, this drives me crazy.

Also, I've heard the the Esoteric house sound is a bit cool and mechanical, which does not sound all that appealing -- I like the tubed sound of the Jolida.

Further thoughts?

04-03-08: Wwshull
i have heard several esoteric units from there very top of the line down to the sa-10 none of them have been noisy. dont know where you are getting your info from but i have never heard a noisy unit or nobody i know that owns one is noisy
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Well then, you haven't don't much searching on the various audio sites. You will find plenty of posts where owners complain of mechanical noise of varying amount depending on the disc being played. This doesn't mean they all exhibit this 'problem', but some do, that's why if you are buying used (or even new) you should really take a listen first.
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04-03-08: Ckoffend
Bigbucks5, Can you elaborate on the Esoterics being noisy? Is this a mechanical noise from the player or noisey from the sense that it is be conveyed as the output of the unit and through the speakers?
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Purely mechanical transport noise; not thru the speakers.

Take a look at a used Wadia 850 with a mod from Great Northern Sound Co. Reliable and probably the best performance in that price range. I've heard the Esoterics and while they're good they're not in the same class.