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

I think vinyl will probably stick around for quite some time, too. But if 96K and 192K downloads become more available for a wide selection of music, vinyl will probably become even more marginalized than it is now.

I have a Burmester 069 reference cd player and as much as I have tried out computer based solutions with all different kind of tweaks, software and settings I still have never come close to the realism, the detail level and sheer musicality I get through my 069. I am not saying that to defend the purchase of this very expensive player, it´s just how it is. If it was the other way around I would have been willing to let it go.

Not necessarily.

I bought my first "high end" turntable back in the 80's when vinyl was on the way out and CDs in becasue I had a big investment in records that I needed to protect and preserve.

That Linn Axis has served me exceptionally well and is still doing its thing today, even though I do not play my records tehse days nearly as often as I used to. But when I do, that investment I made in teh Linn 25 years ago is still paying dividends.

Same true perhaps for CDs today. If you have a lot, you need to play them with something. A good CD player is the easy option, though those who are up to it may be better served going the computer audio/music server route.

if you believe that the cd player, dacs, and transports, are in an evanescent phase, buy them while you can, as well as the cds themselves.

you will thus generate a collection of cds and have enough hardware to listen to them.

of course if you believe that computers and other technologies are the preferable to cd players and the like, the demise of said cd players is academic.

by the way niacin, are you a proponent of b-vitamins as a panacea for certain unhealthful conditions of the humna body ? if so, i would be interested in your words on the subject.