my current cd player just went beserk and i know almost nothing about home cd players. i've heard that they all sound pretty much the same, and that you are paying for reliability and features, is this true?
It's not true. Each CD player has its own sonic signature. All CD players will play CDs but differences in design philosophy, component choice and even casework (!) will result in a different sound. After all, you'd hardly expect a $200 CD player to sound the same as a $2000 CD player, and you wouldn't expect a $2000 CD player to be 10 times more reliable. As to features, very often the cheaper items have more features than the more expensive ones!
Given as you're likely to live with a CD player for 5 years or more, it's worth spending a few Saturdays looking and learning about a few of the options in your area. Here are three good brands, but Lord only knows if any of them are in your area: NAD, Rega Research, Arcam
There's loads more of course, but that would be a very good place to start!