I think the best buy out there is the Adcom 750. That retails for 1250, and you can pick up a used one for $750. Next to that is the Denon 1650. It's their $1000 retail player. I have heard the Rega Planet is a great player too. If you want to go CD only the Sony XA7ES, and the Cal Audio (cl10?) have variable outs and are very good sounding. I own the XA7ES. The Resolution Audio line, and the Theta Miles CD player can also output directly to amp, but I have not heard them. All of these can be had for 1300-1800used, and 2000-3000 new.
