CD"S

IMO, it's more about you as a person than it is anything else.  If you're the type that enjoys fooling around with computers, finding the right ripping format and program, organizing tracks, etc, etc - go for the hard drive. 
But if popping in a CD and listening is more your speed, then get a player. Never heard the Yamaha, but you should be able to get something pretty decent in your price range.  I think one of the dealers was blowing out the Naim CD5x with a flatcap for something like you want to spend.  It is very good IMO.  

I like it simple, put it in the CD player, put it on the turntable. I can’t speak to streaming as I don’t. I do copy CDs to my desktop and burn 80 great minutes of custom CDs, for example female vocals, soul, rock, fusion, acoustic jazz, etc. I would invest in a new CD player or a Separate DAC and transport. I listen to 98% vinyl at home but CDs in my car. CDs get a bad rap in mainstream media. Older music lovers like me grew up on vinyl, bought lots of records, then were forced to buy lots of CDs cause we could not get new music by artist we liked on vinyl. Many people have great CD collections of super music. I can’t even get on vinyl now some music I have on CD as the artists were not big sellers so they don’t re-release. Looking through my CDs there was some good, well recorded, kinda jazz music on these labels. Some of these will never be on vinyl, but Some of these artist are adventurous.

Here are some of the labels:

Audioquest

DMP

Denon

Gramavision

Lipstick

Shanachie

Arabesque

Private music

Mesa

Enja

Intuition

I'm very happy with CDs, and there are some supportive, useful comments here about them. My OPPO BDP-205 has got it all at a great price. They are still occasionally available if you search persistently.

I'm still buying CDs and sacds (at bargain pricing) mainly because I want to own it, and I work on a computer all day. The last thing I want to do when I come home is boot up another computer. Will they eventually go away? Probably, but I won't be around to see it.
I own the Yamaha CD-S2100 mentioned earlier. It is a superb unit with exceptional build quality and sound quality. The built in DAC sounds great and allows for USB input so it's got some future proofing built in.
That said, one of the best improvements in my system has been the addition of a Musical Paradise MP-D2 tube DAC. Check out some of the threads on audiocircle on this gem of a unit. It offers tons of flexibility and customization by allowing for tube swaps and output capacitor swaps.