New or Old CD Player?

@trelja I just Google-imaged innards of Mohican, Sony and Sanyo CD mechanisms, and the Hegel looks exactly like the Sony, with that tell-tale grid/lattice pattern on top.  Hegel, on the Mohican homepage, states that it's Sanyo, but as you say it's hard to believe.  Ironic to see just today that @monkandmozart was so taken with it.

Yes Hegel Mohican!
End of digital or angular notes in playback
Rounded & natural decay,tempo & timbre.
Your mind wanders freely as you listen to music.
No jarring reminders that sound digital or hyped/
Hear inside the music,played by humans.

@twoleftears the Sony transport makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Back when they manufactured them in Japan, Sony turned out the very best CD transports in the audio business.   The shift away from Japan production in the mid-2000s proved catastrophic.  Since then, I'd feel uncomfortable buying any machine that use them, let alone a $5000 player.  Ironically, at that same time, Philips, who had produced less than mediocre CD transports got their act together, and became the one you wanted.  Sanyo also makes a decent CD  transport today.

Personally, I'm more than a bit leery on spending real money on a CD player, the Achilles heel of an audio system.  Other than a good older machine, I prefer going for something with a more robust CD reader like a Sony 5400ES SACD player, Oppo, or the like, and if that didn't sound good enough, feed it into a DAC.  I find it silly that I can buy a Samsung or LG DVD writer at my local computer store for $14.99 any day of the week that offers night and day better reliability than the CD laser assemblies used in multi-kilobuck audiophile players

I would think Hegel know what there doing+R&D put into this player.
I know 5K is alot but get what you pay for especially compared to 20K+ players.
We can list reasons & fears not to purchase but end of day it's because can't afford it.