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Should I still buy a CD player? Suggest one?

I just read that Best Buy is discontinuing CDs. This seems like a bad omen for CDs in general. I had a system I liked and lost most of it in a fire this summer. Insurance will buy me a replacement, but is it unwise to buy a CD player now? What are high end people doing now for source?

And, my players was a Creek CD-43, CD-53, bought in about 2002. What would be an equivalent quality now? Insurance doesn't care that they are more expensive now, they just want an equal replacement. If I buy a player, which is the most popular good CD player now? It's important that is it a popular one, because I don't want to get saddled with something hard to sell since things are in flux.

Thanks.


river251
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tonykay
1,298 posts
 
What year is this? We have lived in California and Arizona, in close proximity to Best Buy, and I was told years ago that BB was discontinuing CDs. It’s a matter of saturation. Are there really any CDs that you want that you haven’t bought already? Of course not! Unfortunately, the same may happen to vinyl in Barnes and Noble. I was in last week and they are selling tons (yes, tons) of popular titles of vinyl for "50% OFF". Check it out.
mahler123
3,041 posts
 
OP

Did your  CDs survive the fire?  Do you have a large collection?  Are they not backed up to a HD?  If the answer is yes to all 3 questions, then it seems like you will want a CD player.  Unless, of course you are ready to ditch the CDs and go with a streaming service.
  If you are undecided about replacing CDs with streaming, I would suggest buying a decent inexpensive streamer such as the Bluesound Node2i before buying a CDP.  Try one or more streaming services—they all have free trial periods, and the Node2i works with with all of them.  It has a decent DAC included, probably about the same level of quality as your old CDP.
  If you decide that streaming works for you, great.  If you miss CDs, then buy a CDP, and use the streamer for the  Internet Radio and perhaps  Bluetooth functionality .
CD players will continue to be sold.  To many people have large collections that they want to play and CDs will still be sold on line.
Personally I would put most of the money in a good DAC that can be used with all digital sources
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audio-union
179 posts
 
I sell and service the CEC brand of CD players and transports. There are links to reviews on the web pages.  http://audio-union.com/audio-union/cec/
brayeagle
362 posts
 
The Bryson BDA-3.14 is a combination of a superb DAC and streaming capability. Pair it with a Cambridge transport and you'll have an excellent CD / Streaming setup.
Just a thought.

m_lefebvre
10 posts
 
I asked myself the same question 18 months ago and because I already have a large CDs collection (I also have vinyls), I got myself a Hegel Mohican (aptly called) which I really enjoy. There will be CDs around for a while, if only in the secondhand market. I don't regret doing buying the unit. Also, call me old fashion, but I hate the idea of paying a monthly fee for streaming (and not having anything the day I decide to stop paying...)
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