Best CD player under $2000

For my ears I've been really impressed by the Musical Fidelity M3scd. When A/B'd against a Bluesound Node 2i playing an MQA stream (which I also think is excellent for the money) I found the MF presents a wider soundstage with a comfortable balance and control of the sound. 

+1 on separate transport. I recently approached just this question and got a Cambridge CXC and an MHDT Orchid DAC. The CXC is solid (there are other solid transports, of course) and my DAC is great.
I may be repeating things you've read, but here is my bullet list for the separates route:

• CD's are yielding to streaming. I already find myself using my streamer way more than my CD player.
• Good DAC can accept multiple inputs — I run both CXC and Node 2i streamer through DAC. Thus, improving sound of either digital source (and a third if I connect my laptop) could be done with one switch of DAC.
• If you get a tube DAC you can tube roll. Cannot do that with most CD players.
• A CD transport has no money spent on an internal DAC; it does one thing well (if it does it at all)

Do yourself a favor: convert your CDs to flac!  I've done my 900 CDs a while back and now, i have all my collection at my fingertip!
CDs are know to degrade with time.  So ripping them fix that degradation problem.

On Windows, use EAC (Exact Audio Copy), on Linux abcde.
On my case, i play my music with free Volumio on a Raspberry Pi 3 hooked to my DAC via USB (async).

I second Electrocompanient 

The only one I would buy is a bit over - the little Luxman at $2695. However, the Cambridge Audio Transport at $450 is really good - so that with a DAC is the way to go if funds are tight. Again, over budget, but the Ayre Codex with the CDC transport at $2250, sounds better than the $2695 Luxman. If you separate the physical transport, you eliminate the weak point of ALL CD players - the fact that the transport breaks. I’ve seen too many $8k Esoteric CD players that are now pretty boat anchors...