CD player suggestions...

New or used? I got an Apollo R for $650 used.

  There is an original Rega Apollo for sale here aGon. 3 days left. It's in your budget. I owned one of these also and really liked the analogue sound that it put out. The Rega Apollo R that I owned didn't have as much of that quality in my system.

Marantz CD6007

Do you have, or intend to have SACDs? 

Also consider, most DVD and Bluray players play CDs.

One issue, does it play copies as well as original cds?

Look at the Emotiva ERC-4, built like a tank, $600 and has an digital input to the DAC

sounds pretty nice for the price

Got to disagree with the Emotiva recommendation.

That one that got sent back.

Looks nice, cool remote, but non-gapless playback is a huge problem.

I opened that CD player up, and it’s a $10 plastic OEM computer drive.

Complete junk packaged in a nice looking case.

In the price range you’re looking at, I would check out Cambridge Audio or Marantz.