It's been a very long time since I had a dedicated transport. Some 15 years ago I bought a Raysonic 168 with 4 tubes and variable balanced outputs. It performed flawlessly. Several years later Raysonic introduced the 2 box 228, which also had 4 tubes and balanced variable outs. While it was sonically superior to the 168, after only a few months the mother board developed issues at the same time that the company folded.
I replaced it with a Oppo 105 with variable outs to broaden my experience to include SACD and DVD-As. Many reviews stated that the 105s OEM power supply module was its weakest link. Eventually, I found a very nice upgraded LPM on Ebay that was a simple DIY install. This upgrade significantly improved both red book and hi-rez discs, BUT...
I got a great deal on a Audio Alchemy DDP-1 (dac/pre) which was/is a significant upgrade from the 105 variable outs. Eventually, I decided to get a dedicated player to use as a red book transport (and potential backup should the 105 die). I got a good deal on a used Marantz HD-CD 1 which I connected to my DDP-1 with a 1.5m Pangea Premier XL coax cable. It was a big sonic upgrade vs the 105, but it died (probably due to me putting it in pause then forgetting about it, letting the mechanism spin for days at a time). I decided to look for a reasonably priced dedicated transport. An extensive search led me to a print review by The Audioman of the Audiolab 6000CDT (MSRP $599). Although I was not at all familiar with this company, the review was very comprehensive, pairing it with a variety of dacs at different price points, each higher priced dac revealing why they cost more. I found a slightly used one in AG classifieds at a great price. Right out of the box, I felt transported to an entirely new listening experience. Icing on the cake was reading the manual and seeing that it shuts itself off (standby) if left in pause. YIPPEE!
Long winded answer to your question:
My CD collection is in the 200+ range, many I owned for 20+ years. A few never sounded good using players as a transport, but all sound really good via the CDT.
HTH
