At the 1800 price point you have lots of options. The sony 777ES or XA777 would be my personal choices. The SACD tips them into favor for me. They are great stock but getting them audiomod'ed makes a huge improvement.
Other great players are the resolution audio cd-50, son xa7es ($1000) and the theta miles (echohifi.com has one for $975). The CD-50 has a wonderful analog output stage. Very quiet.
I have not heard either, but I understand the tube arc cd-2 and the tube cary cd-301 are great players.