My old Carver Tube Reference CD player has been slowly dying for the past few months... last night I turned it on and it plays no audio until I fool around with some of the settings and then it magically starts playing out of one channel only. The Carver has been the weakest link in my system for some time (I know! the source is the most important part of the system) so I won't bother trying to get it fixed.

The rest of my system is all Linn and I spent more than a year finding the system. I didn't have the money for a new CD player at the time but now my hand is being forced. While I would kill to own a Linn CD12, I need both my car and kidneys. Even the Genki seems a little expensive for me right now.

I have a few questions, I was hoping the great minds of this forum could help me answer:

I have a number of CD-Rom drives (including an external Plextor with RCA outputs). Would this drive meet my needs for sound quality? I doubt I'd ever have the money to buy a seperate DAC anyway...?

If not, can anyone recommend a solid hardware player in the $500ish range? Single disc is fine. I don't care about SACD or HDCD support or digital outputs. I just want a good clean CD player that will compliment my system.

Is a $500 player going to limit my system?

Thanks for any help in advance!

ss.