Have transports improved for Redbook CD playback?

Bits is just bits! Get an asynchronous DAC and stop worrying about jitter!

As per your previous thread, I don't know what time period your enquiring about. But in a broad brush sweep, I can tell you arguably the best OEM transport mech ever made was the Victor XL-900 as used in the legendary Reimyo CDP-777. But sadly JVC stopped producing that transport. A few manufacturers are still using NOS Phillips CD Pro-2 LF which is probably the best remaining OEM redbook transport around. Though sadly production of that mech has also been stopped.

Esoteric are using the VRDS-NEO transpor mech. Accuphase meanwhile manufacture their own SACD drives in-house which is a smart move.

With your budget however, I would think this fully loaded Modwright Marantz SA8005 sacd player would be hard to beat. And it's dac performance would likely be good enough to sell your current dac - http://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649456359-modwright-truth-tube-mod-marantz-sa8005-tube-cd-playerl...

The Bits is Bits argument is a logical fallacy. If it were true all CD players would sound the same. The Reed Solomon error correction codes can easily be shown to be rather ineffective, ditto the laser servo feedback mechanism. Errors introduced during the optical laser read process are *doubled* downstream during the conversion process.

Cambridge CXC and Nuprime CDT-8 are both excellent value new transports...I believe the transport is a critical component

Bel Canto's CD3t is a killer piece for the money. In the review from AVRev, they called it an outright steal. Note, however, they have made further improvements to it since the time of this review.

http://www.avrev.com/home-theater-audio-sources/cd-players/bel-canto-design-cd3t-disc-transport.html

Disclosure: we're a Bel Canto Canadian dealer. Try and track down a Bel Canto dealer in the United States near you.