Crazy to buy a 17 year old CD Player?

There's a Ayre C-5xeMP Universal Disc Player listed right now for $2250. I'm not sure you could do any better under your budget.

What really separates the older, high-end CDPs from the newer ones is the improvement in DAC technology.

In order to future-proof any investment you make, I would suggest that you buy a decent older CDP (i.e. Primare, Rega, Hegel, Yamaha, etc.) and mate it with a newer external DAC (i.e. Denafrips. Lampizator, Ayre, Soekris,  etc.). But if you are only interested in CD playback (i.e. non-DSD), focus on R2R DACs (Denafrips,  Soekris, Holo, etc.).  

What is the advantage of R2R-based DACs for CD playback, you ask? An R2R DAC converts 16bit/44kHz  Redbook PCM bit perfectly (i.e. without any conversion or processing). When a PCM file is played on a single-bit Delta Sigma DAC (used in most DACs that support DSD), it has to convert the PCM to DSD in real time.     

I recently compared the DAC in my Esoteric DV-50Ss against my Gustard x20Pro DAC (new, $800), which is considerably newer technology. After level matching, I was unable to detect any difference in sound quality between the two.

Now, the DAC in the DV-50S would probably be easily beaten by a $3,500 external DAC, but I only paid $1,000 for the DV-50S in the first place, so I am more than happy with it.

What is the advantage of R2R-based DACs for CD playback, you ask?

Nodicnorm is correct, this is from MoJo Music which gives you the reason why a R2R Multibit coverters are better to do RedBook (pcm) with, than a dsd (delta sigma converter.

"When a PCM file is played on a DSD or Bit Stream (Delta Sigma) converter, the DAC chip has to convert the PCM to DSD in real time. This is one of the major reasons people claim DSD sounds better than PCM, when in fact, it is just that the chip in most modern single-bit (Delta Sigma) DACs do a poor job of decoding PCM."

The reason why I said to the OP to get the earlier ML no.39 than the later ML 390s. Also the Linn CD12 and Naim CD555 are great older units for RedBook replay. All these are still very pricey on the used market for a good un-molested one..

Cheers George

I used my  broke Wadia as an excuse to try computer audio and never looked back.  But running it remote like a CD player can be a "computer-eze" pain for non-techies.

Ok, I'm not yet ready for computer based audio. My silver disks are now the new vinyl to me and I do enjoy popping them into a player. I would agree with many here that DAC technology has improved vastly in the last few years. Personally, I wouldn't hesitate to buy a newer player and forget the "vintage" cd players. You would be very surprised at how far digital has come....