CD player suggestions...

Look at the Emotiva ERC-4, built like a tank, $600 and has an digital input to the DAC

sounds pretty nice for the price

Do you have, or intend to have SACDs? 

Also consider, most DVD and Bluray players play CDs.

One issue, does it play copies as well as original cds?

Marantz CD6007

New or used? I got an Apollo R for $650 used.

  There is an original Rega Apollo for sale here aGon. 3 days left. It's in your budget. I owned one of these also and really liked the analogue sound that it put out. The Rega Apollo R that I owned didn't have as much of that quality in my system.

If you can stretch your budget a bit, I would suggest Rega Apollo. Looks like music direct has a sale on them for $995. 

I really liked my Rega Apollo-R. Very analog sounding. I reluctantly sold it due to space limitations from reconfiguring my system.