Audio Research CD2, Cary 303-306, Wadia 860, ML 39 or Meridian 508. Or can you not go wrong in this group? Matching with Audio Research and B&W matrix.
I owned the Audio Research CD2 and it was a bit finicky with CD-R's, but it is a wonderfully sweet sounding player. I now own the Meridian 508.24 and it plays all the CD-R's I've tried. The 508.24 is more forward sounding and does an excellent job of delineating each instrument/musician.
If you want to stay in the same musical vein as the Planet, stick to ARC or EC or Cary. I personally prefer Wadia 850 1st, Meridian 508.24 2nd, but I like neutral and natural more than warm and smooth.
I chose the SCD-1 (mainly cuz it looks cool). Excellent CD playback and SACD. Plus it's killer to look at. I've heard that the 777 is sonically more of less identical.
Since you have all tube equipment, you might want to try out a tubed cd player. I've heard the BAT and ARC units are pretty good. I tried the Tube gainstage Modwright XA777, it found that it sounded markedly better than the sony. It had the tube glory in spades. My system is a BAT vk5i driving a vt100m2 w/avanti speakers. The modwright player goes for 2000 new + ~2000 in modwright work = 4000.
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