Best Sounding CD / SACD player under 15K

Ayre C5. Best I heard at any price, Added an ARC DAC for when we want a more analog like presentation.

Ayre does not belong with the above-mentioned players. Spent few hours with C5-Xe MP, EMM stack and Orpheus Labs OneSE, and it took all of 10min to decide Ayre should not be part of the comparison.

Add Esoteric K-03 and Klimax DS/1 to the list (although neither fits your exact requirement: no multi-format CDP)

How about a ModWright Sony and keep the $10K+ for a rainy day...

Are there CD Players that retail for $15,000 ?? Good Lord. Even the gurus at Stereophile could not find anything negative to say about the Marantz SA8001, and it sold for $900. They also tested the Marantz CD 5004 and praised it, $349, of course with the obligatory caveats, i.e. the mid range, or the bass, or the treble, was not as good as their $270,000 dollar 'reference' player. Save your money, get the cheapest SACD capable player. They all fail sooner or later. No one talks about that.

The Mark Levinson 512 has some fans, as well as the Burmester 001 if you can find one used...