New or Old CD Player?

I love my Musical Fidelty NuVista CD ( the new one).  If you can find one used, it might fit within your budget. It’s a beautiful sounding player, built like a tank, and I like the looks of it too. 

@twoleftears WOW, indeed!

On the other hand, you do get a few upgrades for the additional $4000 Hegel charge for this player: a more sculpted faceplate with the three buttons on each side combined into one, a different digital out connection, and the Sony CD assembly.   Oh wait, that last one might be a downgrade.

Dont get me wrong, the CD120 Balanced put forth an excellent sonic presentation for its $1K price point.  Just that seeing them go for $300 would upset me had I just dropped $5K on the rebranded one.  Somehow, this company skates by this stuff, and their continued growth shows they know more than me

Of all the things in audio that are improving at a fast rate now, it's probably the DACs.  Your older CD players will have an older DAC chipset in them, so in my opinion, I'd go for "new" in finding a new CD player.