The way I see it, a cd player simply decodes the digital data from a cd, and passes the digital data over coax or optical to the receiver or amplifier. Since digital is digital, I don't see what an defines a good cd player from a bad one.
I recently compared a CD over a crappy Sony DVD to bluray of the same performance. It was all but impossible to tell the difference in blind switching between the two sources. I still have trouble believing it, but i listened for an hour and you just can't tell the difference. So no, you don't need any great CD player.
