When I have seen people listing their systems lately

The UK I believe has only a 50 year copyright limit, so all these unknown companies can sell jazz and blues CD's often mastered from old LP's or CD's, though some sound great...

Lowrider,

I heard in Japan they still sell new CD's and the market is expanding. In the U.S.A. Most of the chains have folded and you can only find new CD's at Best Buy, Fry's, Target or Walmart.

The UK market for LP’s continued after it had declined greatly in the U.S. Looks like the same is happening with CD/SACD. Maybe Brits and Europeans don’t feel like they have to be the first on their block to get the latest gadget the way we Americans tend to. I didn’t get an SACD player until last year, and am now buying SACD discs of music that both matters a great deal to me and feature particularly good sound.

Personally, I couldn’t care less what the market is doing or where it’s going. I have a good SACD player and a large collection of CDs and SACDs, and they do the job for me. If that means my head is stuck in the sand, then so be it: let it be stuck. As long as the sound is acceptable and the music good, I don’t care how old and supposedly antiquated the technology might be in the eyes of some. Long live physical media!

Wow, I didn’t intend that to be a rant! :)

That’s not a rant. Simple truth of the matter. I would rather have physical media myself.

CDs are not dead nor are the players with Aphiles. I do not happen to think marketing is bad, perverse, evil, or creating some sort of need and desire not already hard wired into our humanness. Marketers are people and companies are people. We are all the same and flawed from birth. Don't blame marketing or our system or our country for consumerism that some feel is beyond reasonable. It is our fault both individually and shared, that is if you wish to say it is indeed something to judge as fault.