Best Basic CD Player (no SACD, USB, etc.)

try to find an older Meridian G08 or YBA 1 transport/cd player

both of these were excellent players in their time  and can be purchased on the used market, with YBA  be careful  sometimes the Blue laser would fail  so make sure it is working order

Meridian players were built like tanks  so even if used as a transport  with external DAc that will be a great option for CD playback

Definitely check out Pro-Ject DS 3, which can also be used as a transport. Lots of terrific features not found elsewhere

$899 buys a lot of goodness

hth

If you are OK with buying used, the SA 800X series of Marantz players (now discontinued) sound very good and are durable. I upgraded my SA8005 player to a KI Ruby and I'll be selling it soon. They go for around $750 (original price was $1200). The SA 8004 is also an excellent choice (I had one of those before the 8005). Marantz made their own drives for these players and they are very reliable.

Players that only do Redbook CD are becoming more rare. You shouldn't limit yourself to this class of players. A player that does SACD always plays regular CDs so you don't have to buy any titles in a new format. Heck, you might even find an SACD or two that you want to own.

IMO the sound quality of modern players have become quite similar. It's hard to buy a player from the last 15 years that doesn't sound good.

Three resources I would recommend are Music Direct for new players, and Audiogon or U.S. Audio Mart for used players. People upgrade their digital gear a lot and with a little research (Google the reviews on particular models you are interested in) you can get a very nice recent vintage player for reasonable money.

I wanted my CD play to sound like my analog play and I managed to get it close by ripping my CDs on a $40 drive via DbPowerAmp and then streaming the CDs. DbPowerAmp makes sure that the stored file is bit perfect. I have no idea what your system looks like but if you have a streamer, most streamers will stream off of a USB drive and many off. NAS. CD art gets automatically stored with the ripped file.

I resorted to this approach for both audio quality and convenience. My physical CDs are now in storage. I tried to find a CD transport under $1000 and just didn’t like the sound quality.

@shutupuface; Like your handle! Had an aunt who used to say that all the time.

I haven't been in the market for a "basic" CD player in 10 years or so. Back then, as I always do before buying anything of substance, especially HiFi, I did an awful lot of reading, research and, ultimately. serious seat-time with the (new) products available that intrigued me, within my budget range. I ended up buying a Marantz CD6005. I'm currently using it as a transport with a basic McIntosh DAC (DA1). Frankly, the DAC in the CD6005 sounds about the same, to my ears, (Pangea coaxial hook-up) as the MAC's DA1. My wife actually likes the Marantz's DAC a tiny bit more. Be that as it may, they sound remarkably similar, if not exactly the same.

During my serious seat-time ruminations, back then, I liked that Marantz a hell of a lot more than an NAD machine that was over a hundred bucks more. Like you, I have a rather large CD collection. Haven't counted them but I'm sure it's on the order of 5 or 6 hundred or so. I tend not to recommend things that I haven't heard, owned or spent serious seat-time with. I certainly haven't heard them all or, for that matter, a good many of them. As such, I'm sure there are other very fine machines out there, new and gently used, but of those I've spent serious seat-time with recently, as well as in the past, Marantz and Rega are those that consistently stand out, to my ears. My good friend recently purchased a used Marantz CD6006 and loves it. Sounds about the same, to my ears, as the CD6005.

About 3 years ago, I spent around 3 to 4 hours with a Rega Apollo A/B'ing 2 pairs of speakers I was interested in. That Apollo was around twice the cost, if not more, than my Marantz and I didn't think it sounded any better. To my ears, sounded about the same. There's only so much you can do with digital. When my Marantz craps the bed, I will likely go with a dedicated transport and, possibly, a better external DAC. If you want to squeeze the budget a bit, that's the direction I would go in. Regardless, no matter what I or anybody else thinks, as always, let YOUR ears decide what sounds best TO YOU!

Good luck!