Why CD players so expensive when the fomat is dead

I'm an ol'school LP & CD guy (who'dathunk CD's would ever be considered "old school?!). I certainly moan & miss the old days of plentiful physical outlets for buying music BUT....I think you may be not be seeing the forest for the trees, so to speak. While you absolutely are correct about the death of being able to buy music in stores, I wouldn't JUST single music out. With the advent of on-line consumerism, I believe that malls will be a thing of the past within a few generations. Look around, before I'd seen a dearth of stores closing everywhere, NOW I see whole malls not being used. We can discuss whether this trend is good, bad, or indifferent (personally, I think it sucks!) but it is what it is.

I just cannot imagine buying a high priced CD player especially one that does not have a digital input.

Audiohpiles just love to torture themselves! I used to be the guy sitting there loading up a single CD into a 45 lb player waiting for my SET amp to warm up before I could "really" listen. What an awful time in my life! This hobby had me by the b*lls!

The issue is not CD players really- it is more the fact that 16/44.1 sucks and always has. Okay- it has gotten better recently but when the clicking and popping LP is preferred you know there is just something inherantly wrong. Lets be honest!

Now SACD/DVDA and 24bit downloads- this stuff is good! Too bad the first two are also DEAD which leaves PCs that can properly ourput the latter as the only real option these days for those looking forward.

I totally agree w/Robr45.On a side note,Ive personally know of 2 local Walmart superstores that have pulled CD sales and placed prepaid phones in its place,So to the guy that states its a lie,maybe you need to be looking down the road for a new job!.From what Ive heard the download avenue blows away LP and CD.Sure there will always be the oldschool die hards that just love the turntable or their DCS players but they represent a very small number of market share

What about the guy (me) who inadvertently grabs an .mp3 of a 10 year old track from a CD that is out of print (Clipper from Autechre's Tri Repeatae), and absolutely MUST have the CD? In this age of high-tech, low-quality rips that are everywhere, how do I find lossless versions of this and other newly-discovered, out-of-production music? Searching the globe for an online store that has the CD!
CDs wont be dead until lossless downloads are available for EVERY song in EVERY genre. That is a lot of hard drive space. They say storage is cheap, but it ain't that cheap!
Maybe music stores are dying, or getting consolidated, but not the CD - not yet. Internet sales are affecting everything.
.m4a and .aac still are not as good as the lossless formats. And I don't have a 45 pound, $5000 CD player. I just don't have that kind of money. The most I would spend is $500 and I am going PC audio, with all the music ripped lossless from - you guessed it - CDs!

IMO ,"DEAD" is an over exaggeration by the poster.It makes no sense to pay 1000s of dollars for a CD/SACD player these days when high quality download is available.Thats how I read the post which I agree with