Need help with choosing a transport.

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.

Oh, and edgy too, the California Delta -- harsh when listening to a string quartet, for instance.

Could be that the Delta really only shines with it's accompanying Alpha DAC? (which is all I've ever had it hooked up to ... the proverbial 'synergistic' match up)

Tonyptony and Casouza bring up some really good points above about avoiding a transport you can't get repaired in the future.

Oh, and I wish I could say I have a 'gear closet' where I stumble on forgotten things like transports! Must be nice :-) I love when I occasionally unearth something cool that I totally forgot I still had, but it's usually just the odd tube or cable something ....