Explain like I'm 5 how to buy a good CD player

I keep seeing all this stuff about DACs and random brand names and I don't know what any of it means. Do I just have to buy a player, or do I need speakers and other chords and stuff too? Do I actually have to spend 500+ to get something good? I don't mind buying multiple parts, but I'd prefer it to not be ridiculously expensive. I have a CD player right now, I got it like 5 years ago and it probably cost 80 dollars, but it has gaps and the audio is just fairly low quality in general. I care mostly about it being gapless and relatively high quality.