So in anticipation of my incoming Electra and my entrance into the stat world, I started looking around for a new transport. I currently have the AGD CD7 and Ref7.1. Supposedly the CD7FV was a significant improvement on the CD7. Currently AGD is out of the CD transport game so when a dented FV showed up on eBay, I bid $1300 ($200 more than it was new) and lost.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=271138278075&ssPageName=ADME:B:WNA:US:1123

 
I know there’s probably better out there so I figured I’d ask ye pirates for advice, CD or otherwise.

Thanks!

For me, the hypothetical best "transport" would be two 6 terabyte SSDs, with one connected to a MacBook Pro via Thunderbolt and the second one backing up the first one via Time Machine, but for now 'taint no such thing.

Obviously, budget is a consideration, but if you still want to spin little shiny discs, a cost-effective solution that I would take a hard look at is the Oppo 105; it can play pretty much every flavor of little shiny disc known to man, and by all reports it does so quite well.

I have a NuForce CDP-8.  It's been a very good transport and CD player, I am quite happy with it.  That said I purchased it mostly because it was a good transport in a half rack size which was critical for where I needed it to live in my old place.  I spent more money than I planned to because of this.  If you listen to a lot of CD's I would recommend it, even the internal DAC is pretty good.

If I had the space at the time, I think I would have gone with one of the Oppo players.  They seem solid, and have loads of playback options.  At some point I may just add one anyway because I'd like to have the ability to read SACD's.  I still like to play CD's and transport gets a decent amount of use.

I have to agree that with the rise of hi-resolution files and cheap data storage I would lean towards building a good media server type set up and just have a decent, but not really expensive, transport for ripping.  I am sure I'll be thinking about this more seriously in the future. 

I might have a slightly different view if I had a very large CD collection and wanted to continue to use CD's as my primary media.

Personally I'm most intrigued by the Resolution Cantata music center, though the price is a rather steep. Rega's new TOTL gear is stunning, but even more obscene price-wise.

My CD collection is massive, about twice the size of my already humongous vinyl record collection, so finding a good CD player is important for me.

I keep coming across players that use tubes. The few examples I heard weren't impressive, so I'm not sure if this is something to be outright avoided.

I know you don't mind messing with stuff.

Buy a decent CD player and mass load and damp the crap out of it. Use lead shot, sandbags, super glue pieces of metal, apply dynamat-type material, etc. Mass loading and damping on the CD mechanism seems to do the most. You can also add rubber gaskets and washers to transformers and other parts which vibrate. Upgrade caps which supply power the motors. You can also install an upgraded clock.

The TASCAM CD-200 has a good CD mechanism (forgot which one, but I think it's one of those Teacs). I would have purchased that instead if Best Buy did not let me bargain for a show-room Marantz. Used Rega Planet (my old transport until my kid shoved a carrot into it) is also good with mods.

Interesting.  ^  And he is now "excepting pre-orders."