Are CD players dead

Hey, I just had this thread a week ago!

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1316722795&openmine&zzMacdadtexas&4&5#Macdadtexas

Dead as a doornail, I say. With that said, I have seen some guys on here that still have multi-disc player arrays, they might not agree.

Especially since they then added a DAC back in 2006 that was all the rage. They probably think they are still state of the art, no need to take advantage of the newer technology.

That's the thing with digital, it's ever evolving, and the difference between the sound of audio files from the more advanced DAC set ups can be remarkably different.

State of the art in 2007 is now about the same as what you get in your $200 BluRay player. The only difference to me, is when you get to the truly high end DAC's by companies such as ARC et all, where the output stage is so much better than anything you get in a run of the mill DAC, that it still sounds better.

Disc players are dead.

Well I ain't no coroner/musically speaking or otherwise. --Truth be told I are verrrrry old (near 75). I have been in this hobby since the '50's. I still love music it drives and defines me.
I guess I've seen my share of media/software changes and besides even tho I loved the soloo demo at my dealers'---I'd need somebody to do all the uploading. I do have the Meridian 808.2which are pretty good.
With the CD less in favor I can pick up stuff cheap/used at Amazon.
There are so many cars with the "Boz-o" 5.1 system-- AsI have xm-radio/ digital hd fm radio and a cd/dvd player in the car and it sounds so good. I guess most of u-all don't remember when you couldn't get much music on the road.
I just thought of another point/advantage cd--I would say few cars get broken into to steal the cds.therein.
So,yes dead for some and not so for some.

I'm keeping my biggie load of discs in all their various formats (mostly SACD versions). I spent a lot of time researching and tracking many of my CD's down. I take pride like a peacock in my disc collection which has many discs that now sell for 5-10 times their original retail price - not that I'm selling any of them. Yeah I've done download music files, files that reside on my Mac (I was early with the PS3 and installed a half terabyte drive in it and filled it over half full with computer files, many of them music files) and I have a nice DAC and a Touch too, but I'm still in love with LP's and discs and their liner notes, pictures.

(continued from previous post) Not so dissimilar to reading. I enjoy a quality hardcover book with a pleasing font printed on good old paper. The nook, iPad, squinting at a cellphone yeah yeah has value, but not so much for me. Messing around with computer files for more than an hour or so gives me a headache (and typing out this post may too (c:
The thrills I got in the early halcyon years of home computing have abated for me and no longer tick my clock like they did regardless what comes along. Aging has something to do with, but hey - time is precious.

I have been researching this and I am still not convenced I can beat the sound of either of my CD/DVD players using a digital transport and DAC - without spending a lot of money. Both my Ayre C-5xeMP and MUSE Erato II players do hi-rez, which means I can download available music and burn hi-rez DVDs to play on the players. The computer audio gear still doesn't seem sorted out and appears to be changing monthly. I was just reading how some believe the 2011 Mac Mini is not as good sounding as the 2010 version due to shared USB ports and other issues, and the life expectancy of a DAC before it is upgraded/improved seems to be less than a year. I am sure I will be moving toward a computer source when things stabilize, but I will probably still keep one of my disc players around as a backup and a baseline of what sounds great.