Is this the END of DAYS for the high end CD player

I think the death blow to the dedicated CD player will be the laser mechanism manufacturers. CD only readers are becoming more scarce everyday. There's very little money in it to the big guys, IMO. They'll all make mutli format only readers sooner than later. The universal players aren't nearly as beloved by people like us.

I highly doubt the CD player will completely vanish for a very long time. Then again, I see the turntable outlasting the CDP, and quite easily. Albums are so much cooler to people than CDs and will hold their retro value far longer than a small disc.

I think entry level CDPs like the NADs will die off first, followed by the $1-$4k or so market. All that'll be left will be above or around that. Hopefully not, but that's what my logic tells me.

Along with the theme of this thread, I think the way music gets distributed will dramatically change. I think it'll be downloaded from the artists site directly eventually. I say this because a lot of them currently have their concerts available for download on their sites. They're generally available in mp3 and FLAC. They also have album artwork and CD labels. For an example, check out Live Metallica dot com. Pearl Jam one ups it by adding the option of having a CD created for you. Last I looked, Phish has their concerts available in high-res. Prices are z bit absurd though. The others I've seen are around $10 for mp3 and $12 for FLAC.

I think it's a matter of time until they ask themselves why can't they do that with studio recordings too. I'd love high-res downloads direct from the artist. So long as I have a way of making a hard copy backup though.