I recently posed this same question to the fellas here. I got some great advice, LISTENED to everything recommended, and snapped up a Planet. No regrets. FYI, the Planet has a digital out.
Best CD Player under $1000
Dear everyone, I would like to get some of your opinions on CD player upgrade under consideration. I have following audio system: Quad 405-2 power, Quad 33 pre-amp, NAD 512 CD player, B&W CDM1 SE, Tara Lab Prism 22 interconnect, and MIT T2 Biwire speaker cables. Mostly I listen to classical music, ranging from piano, cello, to orchestral works, sometimes jazz. I would like to get clean, accurate, detailed, transparent, a great soundstage, and depth? As a first step, I am considering upgrading my CD player. Which CD player under $1000 can give a clean, accurate, detailed, transparent, a great soundstaging, and depth sound and that provide a great upgrade option as a CD transport in case that I buy DAC later on? Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time in advance.