Thanks to @MikeD for the idea.
So far… this Thread seems to be of interest and useful… 
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I have had two Saturn CD players. Both sounded excellent but lost their ability to initialize the CD. I am not sure about the more costly Rega players. Never tried them. Too costly for me. Again the Saturn sounded excellent when it worked. Others might have a more positive experience with the Saturn.
In fairness the dealer did replace my first Saturn no question asked. Rega would have repaired the second which was out of warranty, but by then it was time to move on.
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For an up market sacd player, the Esoteric k-05xs at £8k might fit the bill. Esoteric are the high end brand owned by Teac and use their transport technology.
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I had Arcam players too, back then before I managed to get Naim olive players.
Went to Naim Classic players but soon faced the “doorstop scenario”
I remembered the fun I had with the original Rega CD player, I went for their players again, both Apollo and Saturn, latest both Isis and Saturn 3 - they are marvelous players and worthy to follow the Naim range.
Mind you Rega are fully supported, I even got a free service/repair on my Isis.
(Other players I might investigate are Hegel and Roksan)
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I went from Naim cd5 si to Accuphase cd 450…it’s a stunning bit of kit…mind you also changed from Nova to Accuphase amp…so the synergy there might help !
Steve.
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Honestly, any Sony ES, Denon, Marantz or Pioneer Elite CD player will last forever and sound good enough.
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Exposure have top loader cd player that’s supposed to be good. They also have a new player coming out in the near future and having heard it myself its pretty good. Asking price is £3000 mark
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I have a Cyrus CDi and it sounds great through my SN3
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I have an Accuphase integrated amp so looking forward to listening to the DP-450 with it.
Probably SA-10 and SA-12SE.
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I don’t think you will be disappointed…the SACD player would have been nice but it’s a big jump in price and I only have a couple of SACD s
Steve
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The first Atoll CD100 with a Heed Abacus dac in my home. Sounds nice in my ears in to SN3.
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Having contributed to the original thread and as an owner of a CD5 XS (used as a transport into an ndac which sounds great) I have researched the availability of alternative transports further should the inevitable happen to my Naim CDP
There as highlighted in this thread a couple of models from Teac the PD 505T and the more expensive VRDS 701T which seem well regarded at their relative price points and a half width model from Bel Canto the one that has caught my eye (over the Heed Thesis which I was leaning towards) however is the Primare DD35 transport which is about 2K a full width box and looks very nice.
The question is and the one posed by your post is how will any of these alternatives compare sound wise to an original Naim CDP and how will they fit in an otherwise full Naim system so any advice/experience would be greatly appreciated.
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That… is the $64k question…!!
I hope some who have made this jump will post there experience.
Cool. Would consider the 12 at some point myself.
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If/as/when my CD5 gives up the ghost I think I’d be looking at Project CD players, or their transport. I think the CD mechanisms used are those developed by StreamUnlimited Optical Storage, and the marketing seems to suggest they are well engineered mechanisms. I don’t know how they sound, but they’d be on my shortlist.
I think I’d also listen to the CD5si, given it’s still in production!
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I have the transport and am really impressed with it
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The best “transport” you can buy for reasonable money is probably one of this…
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They are but they have noticeably different sound profiles.
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