older CD transport vs newer ones.

I had Mark Levinson No.37 back in the day, used Phillips Pro transport, laser mech. Best CD transport ever owned, sad day when died, no subsequent transport came close. Gave up on cd plays, exclusive streaming today.

Funny you guys mention PS Audio PWT. It was the very next transport I tried after ML #37, so disappointed! Even after modding never came close to 37, much darker sounding, less involving, the 37 was such a special transport, on top of one of the best transport mechanism (Phillips Pro), the had proprietary mounting and servo. After selling PWT, gave up transports, migrated to streaming,  cd rips on NAS sound fabulous.
I no longer trust cd transports, I've used couple cheaper ones in bedroom system, both Emotiva and Sony have died. Cheap mechanisms used in these can be purchased for $20 or less on ebay. I'd check to see what mechanism used before I'd lay my money down for any modern transport, only the bespoke would be of any interest, something like Esoteric.

Don't agree with Georgehifi, tons of info on this very topic all over the place, many reasons why rip could sound better than cd played over transport. Doesn't mean it always will, but its not unusual that it does.

Per Charles, yes, don't need to hijack thread, this has been discussed at length here at the 'gon' and elsewhere.
For those still using cd transports, players. I discovered very early on, footers and rack solutions have relatively large effect on players, transports, and turntables for that matter. Anyway, I played with various means of situating player, over time I migrated to ceiling mounting with hd fish line. I still fondly recall the amazing sound that ML37 mounted from ceiling provided. So, if you're adventurous, try the ceiling mount, very effective.