What's the best player or contender's under $1k?

the wadia itransport with a dac using apple lossless on your ipod may well beat any recommendation you can find for cd players under one grand.

The 1072 is nice but my Audio Aero Prima mk2 can be had used for $1k and it is a way more refined machine. It makes the 1072 sound mechanical and digital. The Rega Apollo is also quite good but lacks deep bass - which may or may not be a problem.

Player? of what?
My vote would be the clearaudio emotion/satisfy...with a decent cartridge it'll beat any cdp under 5k, hands down.
For a cd player, looko for a rotel cd-1072 - a nice player with a great dac chip and also has hdcd decoding.
b