Hi,

The music room I've been talked about is going to involve substantial work on the room, moving and getting new furniture and so forth. Given the level of investment, I've decided to set up a 'trial horse' system. I've ordered a pair of Axiom M2i's, which I'll hook into an older Sony stereo receiver (i.e. no internal DAC's). The speakers will go on stands and allow me to experiment with the idea, furniture and speaker placement, as well as experience Axiom speakers and service. I figure that if I ultimately go with an Axiom system, the M2's will become the rear surrounds.

My immediate need is a decent budget CD player. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

EAR,
Just stick to a reasonable brand name cdp (Panasonic, Pioneer, Sony, Toshiba, etc.).
Anything between $150 and $400 (Cdn) should nab a decently built unit although you can get cdp pretty cheap from many other sources now (ebay, audiogon). Anything built even within the past ten years will sound identical enough to the point that i doubt you would hear any difference if any. The newer high resolution formats are a different story.
I am assuming here of course that you only want a cdp and not a dvdp or dvda or sacd player. In such case, you will have some other considerations and would need to decide on its features before buying.

....."I am assuming here of course that you only want a cdp and not a dvdp or dvda or sacd player".....

Yes, I bought a Rotel RCD-1072, that will live in my HT (Yamaha VX-R2400) until I make up my mind and the final music system goes in downstairs, then it will become the primary source in the music room. I'll use my DVD as a transport into the Yamaha's DAC's in the Home Theater when I want to listen to music up there, which will be good enough for occational listening. This, 'trial horse' system will be to test the final configuration and idea's for the room arrangements with an OK music system of similar physical configuration.