Best Option In A CD/SACD Player Under $1,500.00

I would look at the REGA cd player its a steal at $999.00

Do buy an Oppo , a cheap 100 buck old one and run it with any number of $500 ish DAC's.

go with the oppo, good sound for the price.

I have both the Marantz 8004 and the Cambridge BD650, though in two different systems. I bought the 8004 used for $600 and the 650 new for $600. Both are excellent with SACD, and I would give the nod to the Marantz for CDs. The Marantz replaced a Cyrus 8x with separate power supply--which I had used for years and was quite happy with. I switched to the Marantz last year to play SACDs and was immediately struck by how much better the Marantz was than the Cyrus for redbook CDs! Both the Cyrus and the Cambridge might have a tiny bit faster pacethan the Marantz, but the Marantz is more detailed and more nuanced. I like them both and plan on keeping both. The Marantz is far less complex, but the Cambridge plays DVDa and BluRay Audio as well.

When I purchased my Cambridge 851C I was able to compare the Marantz SA 8005 in the store through the same system back to back. The Marantz is good. But after about only 15 minutes of going back and forth a couple of times it became abundantly clear that the Cambridge was way better. Though I must say, not nearly to the degree of the other unit on my list of 3.
I brought the Cambridge home to audition it and also picked up the Oppo 105 from another store to compare them at home, having read high praise, thus completing the auditions of the 3 considered.
The only thing I can say is you definitely have to take reviews with a grain of salt. HUGE difference. The Oppo is not even in the ball park. Thin and uninvolving, sibilant, weak and thin bottom end, need I say more. From my experience I am at a loss as to the rave reviews, short of revenue dollars for the magazines. I also have a Simaudio Moon 230D purchased 2 years ago as I like two cd sources in my main system. Very good, certainly better than the Marantz I believe. The Moon 230D or it's brother the 260D can be found at reasonable prices used as well. Bottom line, the Cambridge would be hard to beat for much less than about $4-5K from what I have heard. All above in my humble opinion of course. Cheerio; Doug