hello all,

just picked up a new receiver, and was looking around for a new cd changer to match.. i've always been a Panasonic/Technics guy, and i like all my components to 'match'...

to my surprise, i found only 7 home audio cd changers on circuitcity.com, and 6 on bestbuy.com - 0 Panasonic/Technics (does Technics even exist anymore??)..

judging by Panasonic's website, it doesn't even look like they make HA CD players anymore!

what's going on?? is everyone just using their DVD players to play CD's now? if that's the case, it seems like a lot of extra wear and tear on your DVD player... discuss...

I had to buy a new CD player earlier this year and I had a very hard time. BJ's Wholesale Club, Target, and Wal-Mart in my area no longer sell them. I've had bad luck at Circuit City and Best Buy with electronics, so I ended up at Radio Shack. They only had two models to choose from.

Apparently, from what the stores carry, people buy the systems rather than individual components. I guess most people would rather get a big boom box looking system for under $100.

A lot of people these days use their home computers as their home audio systems. Also (and related), more and more people have their music in mp3 format than CD-audio. Maybe a CD player that also played mp3 encoded disks were available as a component (not as a portable) it would sell better.

Yes, I think that is what's going on. Look at how much the price of DVD players have come down. A component CD player wouldn't cost much less than a DVD player anyway, and you know you would get the digital output for your receiver.

My advice, if you don't have to have a changer, would be to get another DVD player just for CD's if you're concerned about wear and tear. Or, you may decide to use your current DVD player for CD's if the new DVD player is an upgrade over your current one (and would be better suited for playing your DVD's, since your audio CD's may not sound better on the new one). Even a DVD changer wouldn't cost much more than a CD changer. You would have the ability to play CD's with MP3 files and at least the Dolby Digital and DTS audio tracks of DVD-Audio discs if you have any of those.

I think people are buying more of the shelf systems these days. When ever I go to a friends house and they say to me "Hey check out my new stereo" I usually see an all in one shelf system. My parents recieved a new stereo this past Christmas and it was a shelf system.

So I think that people are moving away from the individual components and going to an "all in one" type of system.

Shelf systems suck. I sure hope they dont make components extinct.

I think the #1 answer is yes, DVD players have become the 'all purpose' standalone solution. And that's actually not a bad thing in many cases--my DVD player dates from 1999 and it had higher audio specs than most consumer CD players of its time, and sounded much better than my old cheapo standalone Sony player. The D/A converters in DVD players tend to be better all-around than the average standalone CD player used to be.

The computer as audio solution is a whole other can of worms. Most people are still not integrating their PCs and their A/V systems to any appreciable degree.

I think most people are just using their DVD players these days. I'd buy something like this before I bought another CD player

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=315754

I've got a 7 disc progressive scan JVC DVD changer with all the built in audio decoders I need (DD, DTS, DPL2). It works well, looks great and plays every kind of silvery disc you can imagine. It costs about 120 bucks. Why would I want a stand alone CD player?

Yea, DVD players are the way to go, get one of those disposable APEX players from Wal*Mart for like $50, use MP3 cds, it's major cool