The Best CD player under $1000.

Very easy to answer: How about a $5000 universal player that's built like a tank with all of the most current technology and one of THE BEST ever DVD players to boot ?

Lexicon RT-20. Sold used on these forums for about $900 - $1000

Insanely good Redbook CD player

Check out Absolute Sound's review.

Lexicon RT-20

"Universal" but no Blu Ray play. Best call it an almost universal player.

Here on the forum has a lot of threads talking about that, but the Arcam CD73 at $900 is a good cd player. Check the review on this forum.

A friend of mine has a Rotel 1520 that sounds smooth, detailed, and musical with her B+W 805s. And it's built very solidly.

However, for $900 you could get a very good USB DAC (like the Wavelength Proton) and have better sound than a comparably priced CD player and all the convenience of running your system from a computer. That's the route I've gone (with a PS Audio DL III -- I would love to try the Wavelength however since I understand it essentially eliminates jitter from the USB connection).

Rega Apollo. You should be able to get one for about $800