Suggest budget CDP to use as transport


I am looking for suggestions for an old high end or newer budget CDP with a decent transport mechanism to use for redbook playback through a modern DAC (in market for that now). Key factors are solid construction, good laser and transport mechanism for reliable reading of 0s and 1s from the disk and decent coax/RCA SPDIF implementation. Budget is $500 or under. Suggestions? Am currently using a budget BDP to spin disks, but it only has toslink and HDMI out and I am skeptical.

Sorry if this has already been hashed over before here - could not find in quick search of Forum.

kn
Ag insider logo xs@2xknownothing
Rotel RCD-1072 is an excellent CD player and just as
good as a transport. Very well built. They run used
around $350 or so.

The Pioneer Elite PD-65 is also a nice unit. The CD goes
in upside down in this unit.

Actually there is a CEC TL-5100 listed right now on
AudiogoN for $499. THAT would be my choice. CEC
makes really, really nice units. I have a TL-2 and love it.
Oppo 103 has the qualities you mentioned as well as being reliable in the long run ($500). Nice thing is that if you ever find yourself looking for an improvement with it down the road you can call Ric Schultz over at EVS and investigate his transport mod for the 103. I did so and then liked that so much I sent mine back for him to mod the output stage for use as CDP as well and have been very happy with it. The transport mod was not too expensive as I recall and helped the overall sound nicely.

That said, I, too, believe I would take a look at that CEC as Mofimadness suggested. Many CEC models are known for their good transport performance.
There's an EAD T-1000 on site for 500 bucks. Great transport for the money.It uses the Pioneer stable mechanism. I owned one years ago and thought very highly of it. Good luck with your search...
Look for a used Sony 595. This is a SACD deck so the pickup is excellent and it has an optical output which should work with most DAC's. I have two of these and they often sound better then my Sony 777. Some of the chips in the unit went into most of Sony hi-end players.