Will CD players production be discontinued?

Having a chemical background I would advise: keep it dark, cool and dry.

 

So it's pointless to buy CDs right now?

 

Strictly taken, all buying of luxury goods is pointless. They won't make you any happier.

Don't worry, cd players will be around for a long time.

 

No, but I like to buy music as long I can afford it

 

It's probably been nearly two decades since since I've seen portable and dedicated, standalone cd players for sale in brick and mortar stores. Portable players like the Sony Discman were my primary way of listening as a teen and likely were a contributor to tinnitus/hearing loss. I used to regularly listen for hours a day, sometimes at full volume, and regret it.

 

Well I wonder how you manage to live without mobile phone. I need it like the air

 

Which wasn't what was said.

I ripped a few dozen CDs a couple of years ago and in the end my time was more important than copying 800-odd discs over to flac. I have the CD, so when I'm I going to use the ripped copy? When I'm out and about or for making a playlist. I have Spotify Premium for all that and more and between the two, my listening needs are covered.

Different needs and requirements of course, but the point is and was time, not so much ability to do the task.

 

I just love the freedom of being away from technology. I would be too connected to the world with a portable phone in my pocket.

 

I agree with you 100%.
Unfortunately, every time we talk about CD's and CDP, the guy on duty comes out with his inevitable phrases:
"why don't you go streaming?" Why don't you use Download? "" How come you don't rip your CDs? "And things like that.

Somehow, I find them very unpleasant, because, who knows why, they want to convince you of THEIR truth, even if you don't care.

Type: Who can recommend me a good red wine?
answer: drink water, it is better for health.
"What kind of chocolates could I offer my girlfriend tonight?"
answer: no! don't give her the chocolates, then she gets fat and gets mad at you. It would be better to give a flower ... "

This type of user will always be there, they never give up, the best thing is to just ignore them.

Having said all this, I think that the production of "cheap" CDPs within a few years will be completely interrupted, leaving some space only and only for a few producers who will put very cheap devices on the market, just to please those who have, maybe inherited from father or grandfather, a box of CDs.

Then, I am very convinced, the most famous manufacturers, and for many years to come, will develop and market "audiophile" CDPs; they will be only and only excellent products, probably multiplayer, including sacd (and, in some cases, DVD and BluRay).
Some (it is already the case of Yamaha and Marantz, but also other brands) will create their own mechanics, since Philips no longer produces them.

Obviously these CDP won't be cheap.
But ... audiophiles who pretend to spend little will look more and more towards streaming (and, therefore, they will no longer be part of the (already small) "audiophiler niche": they will simply be music lovers, and that's fine, so.

The new devices will be destined, I presume, more than anything else to those who, like me, like you, like many others, have, and enjoy having, thousands and thousands of CDs.
They don't care about streaming, they don't care about downloading, they don't want to rip.

They just want to take their nice CD off the shelf, open it, take the shiny disk and insert it into the CDP, to enjoy with open ears.

Here ... they are THEM (we are) the target of CDP manufacturers that will be a little more expensive, but MUCH BETTER!
It's like that now, it will be like that in the future as well.

At least ... for the next few decades ... even our Children (my oldest son will be 40, over a couple of weeks...) they will enjoy CDs and CDPs for a long time, and will be able, if they want, to buy the new CDPs, which will come out on the market ...

Edit:
My ire is for the person that has no interest in CD’s or CD players and comes into a thread like this and says “who cares about CD, just rip them and play files, it’s the same or better!”.

That is a thread crap!

WELL SAID!

 

I recognize this. I got rid of Facebook, and suddenly had tons of time to read books and really listen to music. It tasted like more and I decided to drop online shopping as well. I know enjoy walking in shops, seeing interesting stuff I wouldn't have encountered in online buying, have talks with shop owners and have my cds on the day of release.
Now thinking what I will drop next.

 

It's surprising how good it feel!

 

No but thats completely different, most people live a largely digital life now thats why analogue formats came back, to get authentic vinyl sound you need vinyl playback (not interested in cassettes myself but) to get authentic cassette sound you need cassette playback devices, but to hear CD which is digital you need cd players but also flacs and digital files playing back on digital devices, people felt something was missing thats why the analogue experience of vinyl came back, as the digital CD experience is available on computers, phones, streamers etc why would CDs and players ever come back in the future in any substantial way?

 

Right now it's probably the Japanese market -- which is the second biggest global market for recorded music, and I think the last remaining large market for music where physical media sales are strong -- that's probably propping up CD. In the US, the biggest market for recorded music, physical media, both LP and CD together, represent about 10% of the market for music. MP3, BTW, or other download formats, few people use the MP3 format anymore, is just as small a part of the market and shrinking fast. Streaming is where the business is today. It's were most of the consumers are; it's where most of the money is; it's where most of the growth is. Businesses tend to invest more in the bigger and growing parts of a market and pull investment from smaller and shrinking markets

 

Not really a great analogy because turntables continued to be made by small, boutique builders even after big companies got out of turntable production. Hell you can make one in your home workshop with off the shelf multi use motors and bearing and if you can machine an arm tube and a platter. CD player production is going to rely on factories continuing to produce optical disc drives and laser assemblies. In the face of shrinking demand for drives from electronics manufacturers, computer manufacturers, auto makers, etc., several large companies have already shut down there disc drive building operations over the last six years. I'm not saying that drive production will end entirely because there will big demand from archivists, libraries and some consumer in some markets. But as demand for these things shrink to minimal numbers, continuing to invest in, and keep tooling up to snuff to build drives for CD players, will seem like a poor investment to more and more companies who produce drives and laser assemblies.

 

I agree with this. There is nothing that feels like a more frustrating waste of time that ripping CDs to FLAC and then managing the FLAC storage and metadata and back up. I also don't like sorting and filing papers. Or weeding. It's that kind of chore. I have thousands of CDs and zero interest in ripping them. That's why I pay for streaming services -- let them upload and serve the data and run the search and playback software, and I'll just press play.

 

The latter thing with the refrigerators is just supply chain disruption due to COVID. And that's going to continue for some years, first of all because with some places with such poor vax rates, the pandemic isn't abating, and second because it's a domino effect -- if there's a parts disruption in one part of the chain is slows down manufacture of another thing which slows down manufacture of the next thing. even shipping containers, with cargo down there may be product in one place and containers in another. Took me almost a year last year to replace a refrigerator at my mother in law's house. I bought her a small cheap like oversized dorm fridge in while we waited.

The CD thing in cars is different. That's auto makers deciding that consumer demand is not sufficient enough to include it in their designs, even as an option.

BTW, if my 83-year-old mother has spent the last year and a half on Zoom webinars and online exercise classes, and you have enough equipment and technical ability to post on this forum, there shouldn't be much of a learning curve for you to learn how to rip a CD to a computer and store the file to a thumb drive.

 

Where did I say or imply that?

 

I don't do Social Media. The other big time destroyer was TV, so more than ten years ago now, I dumped all broadcast TV. If there's something I need to watch, I stream it online, usually through Youtube.

Sure, I don't know what Game of Thrones is about, and I've never seen the likes of Breaking Bad, but you know what? I don't feel like I lost anything.

I could trim time consumers more. Like you example, having my account here deleted.

 

Don't watch much telly. I have one mainly to watch rugby and golf, occasionally.

 

I've done the opposite with shopping. Dropped pretty much all face to face retail shopping for anything but food. It's such an enormous time saver ordering what I need and having it drop shipped to the house. The most precious commodity in my life is time. I have no interest in spending it traveling to a retail location, browsing around, and traveling back. There are food categories where that's beneficial -- food for example, where not only are the goods perishable but you really need to be able to see what's good and fresh. Clothes and shoes too if you can't really trust sizes. It's not always a huge time savings buying and returning shipped clothes vs. trying things on and getting the purchase right the first time. But I'm strictly a get in and get out shopper. Get it over with and turn to things I need to do or would rather be doing, so, online shopping is a dream come true for me. I don't think I've been in a record store in 20 years. I hope I never have to go back to mostly in-person shopping.

 

Love television, a lot of the dramas/thrillers are better than their feature film counter parts now, (Succession etc) if you don't have a Tv you are missing out big time.

 

Agree 100%.
I want a certain title, I only have to search for it online, pay and wait for it. Without dealing face to face with rude/obnoxious/elitist/greedy/whatever clerks and owners.
I never go to a record shop for chatting, I have zero interest to socialise with record shop people, I'm a strict get in and get out shopper too.
And physically "crate digging" isn't for me. Kinda boring

 

I don’t see them going away completely because the format has too much going for it. A large existing base, tremendous sound quality, portable, sturdier than other physical formats, and you don’t need an internet connection to listen.

I’m not losing any sleep over the possibility I won’t be able to listen to my CD collection in 5-10 years. My wife thought I was crazy to keep my record collection when I gave up my turntable 30 years ago, and guess what? I’ve bought two in the past 5 years and am spinning all those old discs once again. I have faith in the format (even more so than the vinyl I kept in the back of the closet for so long).

 

It's not really the time aspect, it's the amount of satisfaction you get from time spent. Facebook usually only brings irritation and frustration, sifting through the tons of stupidity. Real life shopping costs time, but for some shops it's also a place to relax a bit. Not the supermarket, but in a good book or record store you can go through the collection, talk with other buyers, forget time etc.

 

HA! Paranoid minds think alike. Just kidding, but I bought two Marantz CD5004 machines in February 2011, one of which is still unopened. The other gets occasional use and is working fine. I have my doubts that the unused one will function properly. I reckon that by now, sitting unused would cause dry rot and lubricants would have lost their viscosity.

For the most part these days, I rip my CDs to lossless FLAC using a cheap external CD drive and play the files on my FIIO X1 (1st Gen) digital audio player.