CD Player vs CD Transport Advice Sought

[Damon]

As always, great advice from @Jean-Marie and @Confused.  On a practical point, I'd be a little wary of buying something exotic and/or used (which might otherwise be very appealing!) as the laser diodes used in these things have a finite lifetime and can be difficult and expensive to replace.

As always, great advice from all of you! Seriously, excellent contributions from all above and I thank you for your time and comments. You (plural) have spoiled this community into expecting the best of support and participation, and you did not disappoint. You answered my question and gave much more information to consider. 

The older players or transports may be closer to the end of their lifespan, and technology does move on, and filter down into lower priced components. Actually, I was hoping to be under $500.00 can used, and for a relatively recent product.

We have ripped some of our discs and I'm restoring them onto an iMac, which is now on OSX Catalina. That will stream via the modified Sonos connect, so the lack of Dev AIR is not a heartbreaker. We do often stream from Deezer Hi Fi music which we have ripped, so we're pretty lazy that way. The Bluesound Vault is also something to consider. I too like to buy used CD's and I have not found any good streaming service for Classical music.

I guess that like the turntable, it is for music that we don't play very often and is not on streaming services. And I have to admit that we rarely sit and just listen to music, so I'm already way over-invested in gear for the time I spend with it. At least lately. I just retired in February and I thought I'd have nothing but endless days to indulge all my interests. I just don't know where the hours and days go. But alas.

BTW, I meant to end my post with a 'let's all stay home a little longer and be safe' comment. It wasn't supposed to be an imperative, but more of a collective supportive sentiment.

I'll do a bit more snooping for NAS items and CD transports, and maybe go through the disc and vinyl boxes and see what is worth keeping and what becomes second-hand treasure for others.