Best Used CD Player Under $500?

Anything Sony ES. The 707SE can be had for around $350. Check out some of the threads, though, there was one recent model of SACD player that had a lot of reliability problems.

Jolida JD 100 for about $500 is a good buy. I have one if you're interested.

two suggestions: Faroudja DV-1000 ($6000 10 years ago) $500ish now. Sounds identical to the ML39. The Sony DVD ES-9000 DVD player sounds almost as good as the SCD-1 for around $300 (with the SCD-1 still going for $1800)

I resorted to going with my Sony 3000 dvd over all others I tried. Just seemed lively and true to my ears

If you are interested in buying used, you will probably need to take what you can find. Here are some choices:

Cambridge Audio 640C (version 2) or 740C (both highly resolving, good bass for this price point)

NAD C542 (smooth, pleasant sounding)

Music Hall CD25.2 (well rounded)

Yes to the older Rega's

Yes to the Jolida if you like that warmer sound.

Yes to older Sony ES series

I don't think the redbook CD performance of the Oppo is up to these others, but its HD formats are very good.

Another option is to use whatever CD spinner you have on hand - even an old Toshiba DVD player from the Goodwill - and hook it up to a new Cambridge Audio DacMagic, which is essentially the DAC and upsampling electronics from their $1000 740C CD player, except without the transport and big transformer.