My Last CD player

Linn cd players all the way back to the Mimic to me and many others have a nice warm analog sound most closely to vinyl that I have heard. I also had the California Audio Labs early model for a year with nice Linn like tone quality. Lastly you can’t go wrong with the NAD players, and at their price level they can still produce the sonority of many more expensive cd players. Pretty rugged construction as well !

honest opinions tossed in for your perusal 
jolywins

See if you can find a Simaudio Moon 360D Cd player it was one of the best that they made or the newer 750D player, they typically run between 2k and 3k used.

I've had the latest McIntosh MCD85 for a little over a month now.  It just gets better and better with hours played.  I can't believe how good SACDs and regular CDs are sounding.  It also, has the ability to (firewire/usb or optical) a connection from a laptop or network device and leverage the MCD85 32 bit DAC.

I have it connected to the amp using the balanced (xlr) outputs; which also helps. However, I think at the price point there will be some less expensive competitive alternatives like the Bryston or top-line Marantz; I'm sure there's many others.

I still prefer vinyl, but like @chilli42 I have a CD collection that I want to leverage and also want to use streaming input from time to time.  The MCD85 seems to be making this plan a reality without compromise.  

One thing to note; like vinyl (betterecords.com discussion) some CDs just sound more engaging than others.  Some CDs rival the depth of vinyl, while others are a notch below similar vinyl content.  Must be the sound engineer?

My current CD player is an Ayre......also my last CD player.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Modwright players such as the MW Sony 5400 Signature Truth, MW Oppo 2005 or any MW Sony players such as the 9100 or 9000.  Anything Dan Wright has modded was already a good player--his mods just made it near state of the art.  I have also swapped NOS Mullard  GZ34 rectifier tube, Sophia Electric Blue 6SN7 tubes in it to further improve the sound.  One can also add SR Orange or Blue fuses to do the same.  Adding some of Krissy's magic also makes a significant difference.  The Modwright players immediately show the improvement in SQ.

I picked up my first MW 9000 for $600 used, went to a 9100 later for a little more, and now have a 5400 fully loaded, with about all you can do with it.  The sound is the best of analog and CD together.  I WAS a digital hater until I heard the first MW player in my system.  Now, it's just a matter of which format has a better recording.  My analog setup sounds spectacular, and the digital is also great.  My analog is much more expensive the the digital source.  So for digital to be very close in sound is saying something.

Bob