I said:
"Even low end CDPs sound good and can be used as transports."
@inna said:
"No way, totally wrong. Besides, transport is at least as important as dac, some people don't know it."
No, not wrong at all. As inexperienced as I am I have had the opportunity to listen to some good CDPs, some fair CDPs and some $14 CDPs. The $14 CDPs sound 'good'. Not as good, not fantastic, but certainly not off-putting or awful and the differences are often subtle.
We could argue all day about what 'good' means, but that was not really the point. The point is that in comparison with the other popular physical medium, vinyl, you don't have to spend tons of money to exploit the basic value of the media. In a recent vinyl thread a member was told that he might as well not even think about vinyl unless he's willing to spend a grand or more and to not even bother with a $350 TT.
A $350 CDP will do a reasonable job whereas conventional wisdom is that a $350 TT will not.