Regarding prev discussion "Does your CD player not play all the way to the end of the cd?

Is your CDP having trouble with all discs? The sled upon which the disc sits is probably shot. A new CDP would be in order.
The technology of playing the disc on a transport is the same as a CD player.
However, a transport and DAC may be an upgrade since you can pair a higher quality dac with a player. A transport may provide better SQ since its primary function is to send a digital signal to the dac. There is no analogue stage.

may also be time to consider a NAS or something like a blue sound note 2, and put your CD’s on a hard drive. There are many really good servers for Audio out there. As time goes on CD players are going away and the old ones will fail. that said there are a few transports on the market now from companies like Denon, Sony etc. in the $200-$500 range.

lowrider57, the two CDPs in question are a recently serviced California Audio Labs and a brand new Marantz ND8006 Network CDP. The trouble comes from long playing discs. I thought maybe a stand alone transport would provide the stability that seems to be lacking on the two current models. And if a stand alone transport is the answer, who makes a good one for under $1000?