Has anyone had on of these CD players? How good are they?

Listen to the commenters about buying older CD players.  You say you have a good DAC. Then don't limit it by a vintage player.  I recently bought my forever CD player - a Bryston BCD-3 for about $4,200.  I'm very pleased with that.  And the guys at The Absolute Sound gave it high marks 

Hello,

One of the biggest problems I see with these older Sony CD/SACD players is one day for no reason the laser fails. The bad thing is you cannot get parts or it was something else. I love Rega CD players but they have similar issues. So if you can get one of these ES models for $200-$300 knowing it could fail then go for it. I think you should pick one of the new $600 transports on the market like Cambridge and run it through your DAC. Another option are these older Oppo Blueray players like the BDP 83/special, 93, and 95. After the 95 people want big money. Oppo drawers have been used by Ayre, PS Audio, and of course the Oppo UHD205 which is awesome but is priced very high. I hope this helps. You are on the the right track. 

Have experience with the Sony, CDP-608ESD and it’s a wonderful deck; found it compared favorably or totally surpassed the performance of several Simaudio, Theta, Rega decks. Looks wonderful too with its walnut sides. Don’t shy away from vintage pieces. More likely you’ll be totally happy than disappointed if purchased from a reputable audio outfit or enthusiast. These older Sony players are almost always offered at very reasonable prices too so,... Just my opinion.

close this thread for good. SONY es 7 - was a masterpiece ... but time turned this technique into dust ...

(they don’t get rid of good things - Chinese replacement lasers - they won’t solve the problem)

A great transport (assuming you have a DAC) that I think is a steal at $600 is the AudioLab 6000CDT. I love mine I bought about 8 months ago.