If my player died I wouldn’t think of replacing it for a minute. Buy a nice DAC if you don’t already have one for $2K or less and buy a refurbished Bluesound Vault 2 for $800 or spend more on the DAC and buy a refurbished Node 2 if you don’t want to burn the CD’s you have currently. With Tidel or whatever streaming platform you choose, you’ll never spin a CD again. A refurbished Node 2 from Bluesound direct is $299; throw a Mytek Brooklyn or Liberty with it and you’re up and running for $1300 and not sure anything for the money is going to compare. Get a Tidal HiFi subscription and your library of digital music is going to explode. You might find yourself listening to this setup more than your table.
I do highly recommend the Cambridge 851C but right now I’m just using it as a DAC with my Vault 2. Sounds great and I’m loving the convenience and a library of music far larger than what I have collected in over 40 years in this hobby.
I’d definitely look into a steamer of some sort with a nice DAC before just buying a player new or used for $3K or even half that. All players noted so far are very good as well, but why? Good luck.
