Why CD players so expensive when the fomat is dead

People buy CDs and DVDs from various internet sites, including some in Europe. Huge selection. That's why Wal-Mart sales are slim.

Missioncoonery...is right in the sense that overall CD sales are declining year-on-year at the expense of MP3 sales and the iPod. That is certainly true at the mass market level. Remember though that our crazy hobby is a nitche market and to us the first priority is to squeeze every additional ounce of performance from whatever format we are using (CD, SACD, LP, digital downloads, etc...). We are also participating though in the overall trend of moving away from the optical disc to PC-/music server-based transports. One need only look at how many new USB DACs (whether standalone or integrated in CD players) are being featured at CES over the past couple of years and you may ask the question legitimately as to whether CD players as transports are going to be less prevalent than PC-based transports 5 years from now even in our niche end of the market. Here is an editorial on this at Soundstage.com that ponders these questions: http://www.soundstage.com/editorial.shtml

Enjoy

I work for the company that supplies Walmart with their CDs and your statement is just a straight up lie.

Because there are a lot of audiophiles who will still plop down their $$$ to buy one, even though the high end server is better sounding, and has obsoleted the stand alone transport or player.

Lets see, the best selling vinyl album last year sold 32,000 copies (Beatles). There were 17 billion CD's sold. Downloads are still gaining ground, but will never kill off the CD. I think the future is Blu-Ray audio. Just think, the record companies will get to re-issue their entire catalogs, again.