Jay, I would think about a DAC for the 63 as a transport; upsamplers like Bel Canto, Birdland Odeon lite, and add a good Ac cord to each as well. JPS Digital for the DAC, and JPS anaolg Ac for the MArantz. Maybe work some isolation cones in the budget as well. For your 2k budget, you may even try Ac cords for the Cary sli80 sig. If you are set on 1 box players, c/o a 777es/SCD-1 sacd player; or for redbook only used Audio Research CD-2 or Naim CDX/3.5; Arcam 23, Audio Refinement Cd Complete (over the Rega Planet). There are a host of desicions in this $$ range, not just Cd player? but also system ?'s/issues.
CDP 2K for Cary sli80 Shearwater H.R.
Okay, time to ditch the last of the mid-fi links in my system, (Marantz cd63se). I'm hoping for even better soundstage & naturalness. I've heard nice things about the Cary 303, but its a little more than I want to spend. The Planet & otheres in the 1K range may even give me a nice improvement, so perhaps I can save a little $. What'ya think?