How old is too old?

I'm of a similar age and over the last few years I have been buying my end-stage components. I have a large collection of CDs and SACDs and I can't bear to part with them. I also stream using Qobuz but there is just something more satisfying about playing a silver disc.

I recommend something like a Marantz SA KI Ruby SACD player. I have one and I can vouch for it's quality. I have owned 3 different Marantz CD and SACD players over the last few decades and I've never had a drive fail. Several years ago I splurged and bought a PS Audio Perfect Wave Transport it had 3 drives fail in 3 years. Piece of junk. The difference is that PS Audio used a standard $15 computer CD drive which was never designed to spin discs hour after hour. Marantz builds their own transports and they are designed for playing music CDs. Marantz sill makes a SACD player so you could get a brand new one if it makes you feel more comfortable.

For less money, a used Marantz 8000 series SACD (8003, 8004, 8005), is also a good candidate. I had an 8004 before I bought the Ruby and it never had a problem. There is a bunch of these from Japan for sale on eBay (I'm not sure why).

If you go with Marantz or one of the few other companies that make their own drives (Esoteric for example) the company should have spare drives for the foreseeable future. I seriously doubt you will ever need one assuming that you are not spinning discs constantly throughout the day. If you want to do some research you can try to buy a used SACD player that incorporated one of the later Phillips drives. These are basically bullet proof but if one breaks there are replacements available.

I use my KI Ruby to play SACDs and I also have a Jay's Audio CD3 MK III transport plus a Berkeley Audio Alpha Reference II MQA DAC. I have compared the two setups for sound quality and to my ears they are nearly identical. I could easily live with the Marantz player as my only rig except that it won't play HDCDs. I have a few hundred CDs in this format and I want something that will play them to their fullest potential.

I have a 15 year old Luxman D-06 SACD player in a second system that I bought new and it still sounds very good and functions flawlessly.  It is built like a tank.  It only has optical out (not coax), and plugging it into a Chord DAC did not really improve significantly on the sound of the internal DAC.

I have a current production Luxman D-10x SACD player in my main system that I bought new last year and plan to keep for years to come.  It is an overbuilt engineering marvel.

Esoteric, Accuphase and Luxman all make wonderful sounding and robust SACD players that should keep going for many years.

CDs are still more popular than streaming in Japan, hence the continued market for high end cd players.

@nonoise 

Whatever disadvantage my age gives me, it also gives me an advantage: having had to take music courses and classes in school back in the ’60s, so I actually know what the instruments of the orchestra sound like, something the younger set is woefully oblivious about.

So far, from what I’ve heard from younger guys who play in bands, their friends know NOTHING about an instrument. They can’t even identify it by sight. One guy who plays in a band told me that not one of his friends could identify an instrument. NOT ONE. It is not surprising that one is lectured by someone with half their knowledge (if that much).

I did not initially pay attention to the fact that the younger people seem to have no idea what acoustic instruments sound like (aside from guitar - if that!). I asked my niece one time, while we were listening to solo saxophone, what she thought the instrument was.  She guessed a clarinet.

I suspect the further one starts from actuallyt knowing what instruments sound like, the harder it is to tell what is better and what is just different when buying components. How would one evaluate a speaker, unless it’s a case of this-sounds-good-to-me-so-that-means-it’s-great. Fine. If that’s all someone knows, then that’s their thing. It sure isn’t mine.

I play flute, so I can listen to any recording while using a flute (or piano) recording and being able to tell which flute sounds like a Yamaha (flute or piano). How others decide which component is better without any knowledge of acoustic instruments is beyond me.

I have one friend who minored in music in college, and we have great talks  about classical pieces. He knows more than I do, so he’s the one who will get the DCS system when I die (my spouse would likely throw all the audio components away.)

I suppose one could just buy what one likes (and should), but when I have people telling me I have this thing they call ’confirmation bias,’ I usually ask what instruments they play, and the answer (if they bother) is usually: "none." At that point, I stop taking anything they write seriously. It is not ’confirmation bias’ when one OWNS an instrument(s) and knows what it sounds like. Any recording that I know the flutist used a certain brand of flute can be used (if it is a good recording) to determine accurate tonality. I don’t need the "blind test/A-B" rigamarole. I already know what the flute (and piano and cello) sound like. 

So, my age hasn’t affected my knowledge, which includes 60+ years of classes, band practice, symphonies, operas,  and the like. When I cannot identify a Yamaha piano from a Steinway - in ANY room that exists - THEN, I will know. But given how little others know of acoustic instruments? Baby, I got NOTHING to worry about. They can’t advise me about my "delusions" when they hardly known the objective reality.

Easier just to say inside my head, "Bless their hearts," and keep on with my own life.

@nonoise and @billpete 

If you're looking to reduce your caffeine intake, consider experimenting with teas.  In approximate order from most to least caffeine/drink:

expresso
coffee
mate and tereré
black tea
green tea
white tea

The first 2 of these get their caffeine from coffee beans; the last 3 from tea plant leaves.  Mate and tereré are produced from yerba mate leaves.  It's a good time of our life for less ambitious explorations.  You might try a variety of these beverages for both flavor & kick.  The further down the list you go, the more you can drink!

Ah, and your question was, I realize, about the equipment, not us, but it was fun answering anyway.

I have DCS gear which will be approaching 2 decades in a few years. It plays fantastically well. No complaints. And I have an Arcam FMJ CD23 as well. Still plays great. I think any gear that is well-cared for will be fine, but CD players have the most (continually)moving parts, so perhaps be careful with those. Cartridges, too. Amps? No. I still have my Antique Sound Lab Hurricanes, 22 years later, and no complaints about them either. So amps should be fine, so should preamps. The only things you bay want to know about used is: 1) are they the original owner and 2) has the unit been modified in any way.