@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