Are CD players dead


I went to an audiophile meeting today and the owner of the store said Cd's and cd players are dead. He said you need to start learning about computer audio or you will be left behind. Is what he is saying true?
taters
Transition from LP to CD, not the same as transition from
CD to High Rez. Downloads. Why the difference??? Imagine
a severe cutback on all LP production with only a handful
of CD Music Selection available. Imagine that this was the
case at the start of CD, with all LP Music Selection gone
overnight. There would be a complete vacuum of Selection
from either Format. There would be no Music to listen to.
This didn't happen. Why is it happening now during this
Transition? 16/44.1 CD to 16/44.1 Downloads not a step up,
more like a step sideways. MP3/I-Tunes, Step downwards.
You don't have a Format, with enough Music Selection, that
is a step up from CD. Eliminating CD too early will only
create a vacuum. Many will have to give up their Music-
or step sideways, or step down-Unacceptable! You are not
ready to replace the CD yet, do your homework first!
Homework means having adequate Music Selection first,
on the superior sounding Format, and having this prior to
getting rid of the old Format. It was never a question of
getting rid of CD due to SACD since there never was an
adequate Music Selection for SACD to replace CD. Ditto for High Rez. Downloads. 16/44.1 Downloads sound about the same as 16/44.1 CD so what are you left with? Whatever you are trying to replace CD with, you haven't got superior sounding Format together with adequate Music Selection. You have nothing, but smoke and mirrors! You plan to replace CD with an imaginary Format made up of Smoke, and Mirrors? I will pay for it with imaginary dollars-that acceptable?
You might not have a superior format in itself, but with the right setup, the digital files can and do sound better than the original disc. That is enough for me.

Shakey
There seems to me to be a bit of a luddite camp on this thread: while CD never managed to compete sonically with Vinyl, the same doesn't apply to digital, even in Redbook format through upsampled memory play. Hence I would encourage everybody to compare their CD players with a properly set up computer and new generation DAC. It' ll put paid to this thread without further ado. BTW, the best result on Vinyl is via digitizing through Purevinyl and I run a Dynavector DV 507, Zyx Universe + Artisan setup!