Arcam CD-73

Personally, I think it's the best CD player that costs $800 or less new. You'd have to spend 50% more to get a little improvement, and twice as much to find noticeable improvements.

Yes, the CD-23 is a slightly older model. It was replaced by the CD-33 2-3 years ago, which has now been replaced by the CD-36. The 23 is still 1 of the best CD players you can find for under $2500. And it's selling for around $1000 used, give or take. Newmanoc is right, it will kill the CD-73. As it should, since it was originally 3 times the 73's price.

If you can find 1, try to get the 23T version. Which stands for Text. It has a different transport than the 23 version, and on certain encoded CDs the front LCD will display the name of the artist, CD and each individual song. A neat extra feature.