You can get a c-370 for under $500 new from some of the NAD discounters like http://800stereo.org/nadc3newmod.html and at that price, it is really worth the $150 difference. To save some money, I would either go with a used ARCAM CD player (I've seen used Alpha 7se players for around $250 on Audiogon) or the Cambridge Audio CD player. This would leave you with about $200 for cables (speaker and an interconnect) which you should probably also get used to save some $$$.
Good Luck
Good Luck