Is anyone still using a CD Player

@thelotusgroup "I do 5 different treatments to CDs (the ones I really want to listen to) and the difference from before and after is staggering"

What are the treatments that you do?

Keep my CDs. Ripped most of them to a flash drive for road trips  Harmon Kardon system in my Subaru. My internet service was raided by private equity with crumbs snapped up by an inept useless giant. Streaming is not reliable. 

This is the order of sound quality from top to bottom.  CD's, rips, streaming.  This was verified by a demo of all three with the same masters.   

I finally got my parents to dump all their cassettes today. There is no way they are ever going away from their CDs. I have to admit that when I am there, I am amazed at how nice their system sounds on much less expensive and much older equipment than mine.

Years ago I got rid of my CD collection - thinking I was forward thinking and I knew CDs as primary medium for music was going to be buried by the advent of things like itunes and digital music platforms - 

My cd player died - and I never replaced it as I jumped hard into the world of digital playback... fast forward a few decades -- and I wish I had my CD collection - 

Sure - I ripped most of the ones I had to my hard drive - but the quality is nowhere near CD or better quality - it just never is once you compress a compressed signal - data loss is inevitable. 

I digress -- don't get me wrong - I love my streaming services - I 'have' music saved in my streaming platforms that I would have never discovered otherwise -- with that said though - 

The purpose of streaming services - is to get the consumer to pay rent for music - and be happy never owning a thing... you will be happy and you will own nothing - that was the entire premise behind itunes at Apple - and millions seem to be happy owning nothing and are very happy -- 

I decided that I better buy CDs before I can't -- because as it is -- gettin any type of medium for audio and video is becoming more and more of a challenge - if not impossible to acquire - I am not talking on  the used market - I am talking - buying new - there is no store I know of that you can buy NEW CDs or DVDs. Best Buy, Target, there are no more music stores, Amazon has very few to choose from if they are even in stock - so - 

My point - I was heavy in to CDs for decades in the 80s 90 and early 2000s - got rid of them because I thought I was being progressive and early adopting digital music - and now I  regret that decision - so I am going back to acquiring CDs and trying to decide what player to buy - 

My why? Basically because someday 'they' could cease all streaming services for whatever reason - and I will own nothing - with no way  to listen to what i want to listen to because someday they are going to turn off the lights as they say - and I am still going to wany my music. 

Even if I only play my CDs once in a blue moon - at least I will have them when I want them.