Why CD players so expensive when the fomat is dead

it's economics. restrict the quantity and charge more. within a small firm, like ayre, there are svereal obvious reasons why a cd player is expensive. mass market firms can offer a range of prices (nad, e,g, ?) .

anyway, it would seem that the format is not dead.

i assume the implication of the thread is one-box players, not dacs and transports, which are usually red book only. although perhaps not the implied subject of this thread,i believe there are dacs available for under $1000. as for transports, i am not familiar with their price ranges.

by the way, if a product is being discontinued, the price usuually goes down not up. in the case of cd players, there is no reason for a high or low price, it is purely based upon marketing decisions of firms. its a matter of microeconomics.

Thank you MRT, very good point! . . what I was slowly trying to get at, is that I see no particular correlation between the steady shrinking of the 32M CD pressing per annum with the admittedly high cost of the high CD playback equipment. The reason there appears to be no correlation, is that the price of playback equipment for our friendly yet diminutive Lazarus 1.5M pressings per annum format--that is that very vinyl sacred cow which every 'self respecting' audiophile is sworn to revere--appears to suffer of the same, if not superior--pricing extravaganzas, ranging from under $1K to galactic-sized figures. .

Hence, if we convert the above to logical propositions, we would quickly discover that they yield cute contraddictions. G.

"by the way, if a product is being discontinued, the price usuually goes down not up."

No it does not. I'm not talking about when product model x is replaced by model x.1. I'm talking about a technology CHANGE. When a technology is phased out and production levels fall to a tricle- the price goes way up.
Look at the price of a dial-up external modum, almost the price of a whole computer and needs to be ordered. You can still buy a cassette player and you can still buy a VCR, BUT look at the prices. You can still by LPs of most rock released, but look at the price - $30 for a record. You can still buy blank Metalic cassette tapes, but look at the price- 30 bucks for a blank cassette. You can still buy NOS vac tubes, but look at the price!

That's crazy talk. That crap is cheap.

OK - get on down to your WalMart job now.