Looking for a CD / SACD player. Also, tell me about Esoteric

Esoteric makes great sounding players.  My concern would be servicing.  There were a few threads about poor US service approximately a year or 2 ago.  Perhaps there were some pandemic issues that have been resolved, but especially as you identified service as a priority in your OP, I would want to have that sorted out before you buy.

  Personally I use an Oppo 105 as a transport into a Bryston DAC.  With SACD I output the Oppo DSD over HDMI into the Bryston 

Playback Designs MPS-8. Can't be beat. 

Please correct me if I’m wrong-  no more Oppo, no more Sony, etc as to getting a more or less cheap transport and using a nice D/A converter?

Esoteric's parent company Teac has been making some of the best CD drives on the planet for decades. They used to sell to OEM's but now keep all their drives to them selves in Teac/Esoteric's CD players etc. great players if not some of the best on the market right now. There simply is not that many CD drives (OEM) being made anymore so almost everyone is using the same few drives in their players, regardless of manufacture. Esoteric uses their own (Teac) drives and have been for decades.

That said I have no idea what the digital side of the house sounds like been a couple decades since I owned one.  maybe consider one of their CD/SACD transports and an outboard DAC.