Best Sounding CD / SACD player under 15K

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...

With cd reproduction technology continuing to improve, why not buy an oppo bd-95 or sony 5400es both of which have reviewed well on audiogon and in the rags. They are multi format players so they do not fit your specification, but it is not clear why you have this requirement. You can add an external DAC to further improve the sound, but i have not bothered as i did not find them cost-perfpormance competitive over top notch players.

One trait i found in the better sounding players is upsampling vs a resistor ladder rack. I am not a technical expert on this; robert harley's guide to high end audio provides a good technical explanation.