Are CD players dead

"And now we turn to our headline fact - that 77,400 turntables were sold in the year to May (a 11% increase). That compares to 41,400 CD players.”

Thanks for that info Knownothing. That’s astounding to me. I feel like I just fell off the proverbial turnip truck.

I would like to point out that another WhatHiFi article , from the year 2009, reports sales of 570,000 BluRay players and that BluRay represents 25% of the video player market, for total video player sales of 2.3 million.

http://www.whathifi.com/blog/the-year-of-the-headphone-2009-hi-fi-and-av-sales-figures-revealed

Also, computers and game systems can be used as players.

Since video players can play CD's (and some of them SACD's) most people don't need a CD ONLY player.

Perhaps the single function CD player is passe, but the CD format can still thrive.

Ken

What's BluRay? Oh yeah, this decades version of the 8-track.

The cd player is not dead....but you would be a fool to buy one.

my two cents from someone who swore by LP's up to 2001 because CD's and players made until then gave me the same sensation when listening as having my teeth drilled by the dentist.

1)Digital is getting very close to LP's, doesn't degrade with repeat playing and you don't have to flip sides every 25 minutes
2) computer audio without asynch USB support to DAC is disappointing compared to a good CD player
3) computer audio with asynch USB and a good DAC should surpass a CD player at 44.1 khz...no more transport issues
4) Computer audio has no rip options for discs above 44.1 khz... DVD and SACD are user unfriendly

So I'd say yes 44.1 khz only players will die out but multi media players will linger until disc makers relent and rip options become available.

As to hard media... I'd bet many are willing to pay for the hard copy as a backup strategy.

Long live wav.... I'll pass on flac.