Is this the END of DAYS for the high end CD player

Hardly. Isn't it fun to get your CDs out and play them in the player? Like Art has mentioned above, my next buy would be a SACD player that has USB, Optical and Coaxial inputs, cause digital files are fun too. BTW, last month I got myself a Sony Cassette Walkman to play my old tapes on the go.
So you may look at a Accuphase/Luxman or wait for Marantz/Sony Reference/ES players to come out with new models with digital inputs.

I suppose since a CD player relys on a digital format. The question will be more about how religious one is about the file type and it being identical regardless of where it is stored. Then as pointed out the analog output section becomes paramount. Thus if you purchase an expensive one do not pay a lot for the transport do it as a DAC with the ability to play a historical media type.
My only question is why are so many of us including myself slow to adopt the music server as a source?
Another point is that Turntables and LPs are a poor comparison as vinyl and it's playbackhave continued to evolve amongst the cognescenti. Mass market for vinyl and TTs may be virtually non existent, but Luxury turntables are the norm for people who play records.
Cassettes BTW are a different story. The CD killed the cassette but Lps survived as a highly desirable analog media and yet the cassette is still dead despite being another analog media- Why? I don't know, except for me, the lack of discrete track selection was more of an inconvenience than I could stand and despite the fairly high level of sophistication with better tapes and a very good deck they never sounded quite as good as my records or even dare I say my better CDPs.

Very often old CD player or digital separates sound better than new DAC.

It might have a forestalling effect, but high end CDPs are not on their way out. Just as vinyl soldiers on, CDs will as well. As extracting that last bit gets better, just as it has with vinyl, audiophiles will discover "what they've been missing" all this time. R&D on DACs and servers and computers will continue to serve the CD format simply because some will tinker and continue to experiment.

If I were to come into a tidy sum, I'd jump, feet first, into servers and such but its still evolving at a dizzying speed so as to preclude me from doing so. There is some inexpensive stuff out there that is giving great enjoyment but its continually being eclipsed by the next discovery. Until the dust settles, somewhat, I'm stubbornly sticking to CDPs.

Opinions are only as good as your preconceptions.

Personally, I am very happy with what I currently have and see nothing that is securely established enough to convince me into further investment. Furthermore, I see nothing being phased out, in-fact to the contrary of. More music is available on CD today than all else combined and vinyl is making an impressive resurgence.