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...