Converting cd's to high resolution audio

Another worthy alternative is the NAD M50.2. This has had good reviews too and has one advantage in that you can actually use it just to play cds if you wish.
The vault can only rip cds to playback from its hard drive. 

That being said its mrsp is $4000 although I did see a factory refurbished unit for $2500 on eBay.

Still a lot more cash than the Vault.

I am also in the market for a CD ripper. There is the Cocktail Audio X40 streamer/cd ripper/ cd player (and X30 that includes an amp) that interests me, but very few reviews out there. Compared to the other rippers on the market, this one uses a ESS Sabre DAC, one of the better DACs in the market. 

If you have an Oppo or similar player a simple method is to rip the CDs to a portable hard disk using a program like "Exact Audio Copy.". They can easily be played them through an Oppo via USB directly and controlled from your phone.

Or you can use a lap-top to play them through any DAC that has a USB input. If it doesn’t have USB you can use a USB to spdif converter. If you use a program like JRiver you can rip them even more conveniently and also control from your phone.

OP
first of all, very few CDs “degrade”.  I still have mine from the early 80s and they play just fine.
  I have ripped several hundred CDs to the Vault2 and to a hard drive.  Nothing has broke.
I think that you have read too much Audiophile nonsense.