Transport Upgrade

I love both of those CD players. I'd stick since I think they are (relatively) equivalent.
Rotel has HDCD chip, Apollo does not.

I've owned both, and indeed both are excellent. I preferred the Apollo to the Rotel. The Rotel seemed, at least in my system, to have just a very slight electronic haze, if that makes sense. The Apollo was more musical, warmer, more natural sounding. But I didn't like the 15-second (or so) delay as it initializes a CD -- not a huge problem, and clearly, many owners have learned to live with it. Have you considered keeping your Rotel and using the digital out signal to drive a DAC? A used Bel Canto DAC2 or Benchmark DAC-1 might be nice. Some people think the Benchmark is overly analytical, but to my ears it's an extraordinarily engaging music-maker.

Thanks guys, I'm looking into the Benchmark DAC-1.

Wig

I've read here on audiogon that the Rega players have some issues. I'd do a search before I invested.

If you are looking at DAC in the pricerangeof the Benchmark you might also want to check out the PS Audio Digi Link 3 (non-modded) , have it in my second system using an Arcam CD 72 a transport. The amp is a Consonance Cyber 100 Sig - very nice to my ears

Wig - Benchmark is not sensitive to quality of the transport as long as it is bit transparent (no digital volume control etc). I use Benchmark with a cheap DVD player. DVD players have good tracking and inherent MP3 playback. In addition many plays DVD-Audio and SACD converted to PCM. Some also play HDCD.