Are CD players dead

Availability of Redbook-quality or HD-quality downloads is not present across a broad spectrum of musical genres. I check regularly. Comments on this post that broadly claim one can simply download whatever music they want in Redbook or HD are not based in reality. CD players may be on the road to obsolescence, but the CD format is still where I'll be putting my money for years to come, especially when buying legacy music from my high school and college years. I can get literally *anything* I want music-wise on CD from Amazon, but every time I search for Redbook or HD quality downloads, I rarely find what I'm looking for.
Computer audio is making broad strides as a playback medium, judging especially from the distinct lack of CD players at RMAF. Funny thing, most of guys running the Macbooks at the show had NO IDEA what they were doing. The up-front cost and required input time to get computer audio up and running do not compete with a decent budget CD player, IMO. There is too much tweaking required.

Ditto, Realremo. I got involved in Computer Audio because
everyone was saying, "I think the day will soon be upon us
when most new Music will only be available via the Internet"! It still sounds to me like an ultimatum. I was lied to as to the so-called convenience of PC Audio. Multiple Formats, multiple Software, multiple Media Players, multiple versions of said Media Players, Multiple
Sampling Rates, Multiple ASIO's, Multiple Drivers, complete lack of Manufacturer's instructions for proper
installation on multiple levels, and Z-E-R-O Manufacturer's
Customer Support for troubleshooting. Hard Drives Crash, Music Files Fragment, Viruses, Malware, Spyware. No CD has
-CONVENIENTLY- ever been affected by these things! Plug and
play has been replaced with a requirement to have a degree in Computer Science for the priveledge of listening to Music, or it will be if PC Audio fanatics have their way. This will NOT provide more Music to everyone, but reserve the priveledge of listening to Music to a select few-again if PC Audio Fanatics have their way. Why the obsession to severely limit the Formats that everyone else shall be regulated to? Why limit the Music for everyone else?
Perhaps Ego is involved here, not the sharing of the Music listening experience, but reserving it for the select few!
Ain't that special! No market ever survived by providing only one choice, and ultimately one choice only. That is not a market-that is a dictatorship!

I did attend the recent RMAF and could play my CDs in 80% of the rooms I visited, there were many CD players available.

You'll know when they're dead when you stop seeing them on the cover of Stereophile. If companies are still making them, it's worth the cost of R&D to make them. You have to wait until anyone who's 38 years old right now to die of old age.

Pettyofficer: Oh no! Does computer audio mean that people will have to.....god forbid......LEARN SOMETHING?