If you are OK with buying used, the SA 800X series of Marantz players (now discontinued) sound very good and are durable. I upgraded my SA8005 player to a KI Ruby and I'll be selling it soon. They go for around $750 (original price was $1200). The SA 8004 is also an excellent choice (I had one of those before the 8005). Marantz made their own drives for these players and they are very reliable.
Players that only do Redbook CD are becoming more rare. You shouldn't limit yourself to this class of players. A player that does SACD always plays regular CDs so you don't have to buy any titles in a new format. Heck, you might even find an SACD or two that you want to own.
IMO the sound quality of modern players have become quite similar. It's hard to buy a player from the last 15 years that doesn't sound good.
Three resources I would recommend are Music Direct for new players, and Audiogon or U.S. Audio Mart for used players. People upgrade their digital gear a lot and with a little research (Google the reviews on particular models you are interested in) you can get a very nice recent vintage player for reasonable money.