CD players = dead?

Your welcome! 

i mis the feeling of listening with concentration. With Roon i skip/swipe/search as a madman (and listen). With a cd i’m more in the music. And listen front to back with patience.

Yes, this the problem with streaming in a nutshell. We don't commit to listening to the whole album, as the artist intended.

I listen to whole albums when I want when streaming? Just as easy to skip forward on a CD player. Just as easy. Remote and one press of a button. ? 

CD players are long from being dead. There are people out there with better ears and systems than me who have yet to hear a streaming system better their CD players. Granted, we're talking expensive CD players but even some of the mid level priced gear sounds great. It's all in the implementation.

On another note, lots have been said about all that could go wrong in a CD player but it doesn't necessarily mean that it does. Some get it right the first time right out of the box. PC audio and streaming are continually evolving and improving and people are flavoring it to their tastes, despite the "perfect" nature of it. I'm content to occasionally tweak things.

Let's not forget good old vinyl: 6-8 bits of music (maybe 12 with a great pressing) squeezed properly and the added distortion (as much as 10 bits) in the higher frequencies from the cartridge to accentuate the highs and it still sounds wonderful. There are so many ways to skin this cat so let's keep all options open.

All the best,
Nonoise

I don't think sound quality is the issue anymore. I ripped all my cd's and they sound the same, perhaps a tad better than a CD player due to reduced jitter. Perhaps a tad, but pretty much the same. However Tidal when used with Roon is special. Sounds every bit as good with MQA material sounding even better than CDs.  I have done the comparisons vs  PS Audio Perfectwave Memory player which is an outstanding transport. The Memory player bested my previous $5000 CEC transport. 

I suppose it it all depends on the system and total synergy, but experience proved to me that my set-up - Music Vault Ultra II from Sound Science with Tidal and Roon is the ticket! Many front end combos out there that will no doubt yield differing results.