Should I still buy a CD player? Suggest one?


I just read that Best Buy is discontinuing CDs. This seems like a bad omen for CDs in general. I had a system I liked and lost most of it in a fire this summer. Insurance will buy me a replacement, but is it unwise to buy a CD player now? What are high end people doing now for source?

And, my players was a Creek CD-43, CD-53, bought in about 2002. What would be an equivalent quality now? Insurance doesn't care that they are more expensive now, they just want an equal replacement. If I buy a player, which is the most popular good CD player now? It's important that is it a popular one, because I don't want to get saddled with something hard to sell since things are in flux.

Thanks.


river251
The only CD player you need is the one in the computer you run your server software on.  Streaming uncompressed digital files to a DAC sounds the same as playing them from a CD player and is a lot more convenient.  
Consider a DAC and digital - stream or download.  
You can get as good, or better fidelity and a CD player has a DAC anyway. 
There are many inexpensive DACs and you can try several.  You will need a source like a PC, or other streamer.  
I too am sorry to hear about your unfortunate fire incident. Until recently I too was a streaming holdout, but I’ve converted and am very happy I did. I find the quality of streaming Qobuz comparable or better than spinning CDs, and although the convenience and flexibility is off-the-charts better than playing CDs, even better is the variety of music I now have at my fingertips. As a result I’ve got a whole new library of albums and tracks I probably would’ve never gotten exposed to otherwise. It’s like whole new musical worlds are being opened to me. So I’d highly recommend turning lemons into lemonade and take this opportunity to enter the streaming world. Very good DACs have never been so cheap, and you can buy a relatively cheap CD player as a transport and pair it with something like a Wired4Sound reclocker and get great results for spinning your CDs (although you may find yourself not spinning many anymore after entering the wonderful world of streaming — I don’t). Obviously going this route will also negate the need for you to repurchase most of your lost CDs as they’re probably already available for streaming. Or, alternatively, you might consider something like the Innuos Zen Mini Mklll, which at around $1500 could be your CD player, DAC, and streamer all in one. Upgrade the DAC later and you’d have a pretty killer front end.

Qobuz was recently offering a special $15/month for their hi-res streaming subscription to early subscribers, and I’d recommend taking advantage of that if it’s still available. I did, and it’s the best 15 bucks I spend every month. Sorry again for your loss, and best wishes for rebuilding better than ever.
Sorry to hear about the fire. I actually love that streaming is taking over to a certain degree. I use a few shops on Ebay for cd's now and buy for really cheap (moviemars, getimportcds, to name a couple). Best Buy now has switched to a random bin of cds in their stores and it is near impossible to find anything. Their vinyl section is growing and can be found back by their home theater department. 
Schiit Audio is going to have a transport out this year. I might wait until then to make a decision