Transport and jitter is important, but gear has improved in general at all price points in recent years and practically I just have not heard much difference between most good quality players. Not theat they are are equally good in regards to jitter, just that most seem good enough to be one of the last things to worry about after all the rest. Theoretically, we know no two designs are exactly the same and some will measure better than others.
Ripping to files and playing from those takes it completely out of the picture. Anyone who spends a lot of money on a transport these days rather than ripping to file and using a music server is mostly throwing away good money these days compared to the alternative technical approaches possible.
If you must play CDs and are willing to pay to squeeze the last ounce of performance out of things once you have mastered all the rest that goes into good sound, then there is a case to be made to pay more perhaps for a transport, even if just as an insurance policy more so than anything one is ever likely to hear.
But that's what obsessed audiophiles do quite often though I suppose, so why should transports be any different.
