If you rarely listen to a CD I don't see any point in spending a thousand or even hundreds. I've been using a second-hand Sony CDP-CE500 with remote (that I got locally for less than a hundred) for several years and it sounds quite good in my system.
I also have a Rotel RCD991 that I like. It cost hundreds more on the used market and sounds a little better but I really like the convenience of loading five CDs at a time in the Sony.