This was well before they discovered the deleterious effects of jitter.
You would indeed benefit by purchasing a well recommended used player that is not more than 5 years old.
Cambridge 540c used (from 2008) would be a good choice but there are many good players and the differences between one digital player and another are much much smaller than between one speaker and another.
Rule of thumb for high quality sound => invest most (for example half your budget) in speakers as they tend to perform very poorly compared to electronics - so usually this is where most of the distortion and coloration happens.
You would indeed benefit by purchasing a well recommended used player that is not more than 5 years old.
Cambridge 540c used (from 2008) would be a good choice but there are many good players and the differences between one digital player and another are much much smaller than between one speaker and another.
Rule of thumb for high quality sound => invest most (for example half your budget) in speakers as they tend to perform very poorly compared to electronics - so usually this is where most of the distortion and coloration happens.