Need help with choosing a transport.

Thanks for the input, Steve. Wow, the CAL Delta is OLD! The price is attractive but do you really think it will hold up against the latest transports? Don't know anything about the Audio Research CDT1 and haven't been able to find much comment about it. The TADAC is a jitter-free design and mates well with anything.
CEC TL2 gets consistently great reviews. What about Theta Pearl or Madrigal Proceed?

Pmboyd, the Proceed PDT series of transports is quite good, with the PDT3 being among the best ever made (IMHO). They were also built like battle tanks. However, if you should find one and ever need service it will cost you huge dollars to send it to Harman (~ $1000). Also, the Philips CDM1 Mk.II transport used in that series in unobtanium now, so there's a real risk you'll end up with a doorstop if something should go wrong with the mechanism.

If you can stretch it the CEC TL51X is a very nice transport. They show up used between $800 - $1000.

Besides sound quality, your main concern when buying a transport should be parts availability in the future, specially the laser unit, which has a finite life.

So, buying a decent CD player from a well respected manufacturer with a good service track record is not a bad idea.
Rega pushes the customer service burden to their distributors and expects them to stock parts. Will your local distributor have a discontinued laser assembly in stock 5 years from now ?
Sony and Phillips do not stock parts for discontinued products. Same with LG, Samsung and most mass-market manufacturers.

Your best bet is a high-end, solid, USA or UK based manufacturer.
Audio Research has probably the best customer service in the whole high-end industry. The have parts in stock for every product they have ever made.
I believe that Naim is also an excellent company to deal with.
Maybe others can chime in about CEC's service policy.
I hope this helps

Lo and behold, I found an old California Delta transport looking through my gear closet. Hooked it up. Not as detailed and holographic as the Rega Apollo -- flat, congested, poor bass control.