The Paradox of Surging Sales and Vanishing Parts
CD revenue in the United States jumped nearly 59 percent in the first half of 2026, reaching $171.1 million according to the Recording Industry Association of America. The numbers reflect a genuine revival in physical media. Yet the brands building high-end CD players are confronting a contradiction. The machines that read those discs depend on optical drive mechanisms that manufacturers are no longer producing, and the remaining inventory is running out faster than anyone expected.
Two recent product decisions make the problem concrete. In late January 2026, PS Audio announced that its PMG Super Audio CD transport was being discontinued. Paul McGowan, the company's co-founder and chief executive, explained on the brand's forum that the drives appropriate for the player were simply no longer available. Building a replacement from scratch was not realistic, he said, because the company's expertise lies in electronics and software rather than disc mechanism engineering.
By August, Naim had taken a similar step. Its replacement for the Uniti Star streaming amplifier, the Uniti Star Lite, went on sale at £3,199 without a disc slot. The Lite weighs one kilogram less than the Star it replaces, and the missing mass corresponds directly to the CD drive. Naim does not manufacture mechanism assemblies in-house either, a forum member who repairs disc hardware confirmed.
Why the Supply Collapsed
The shortage traces back to structural changes in two separate markets that once sustained optical drive production. Computer manufacturers shipped CD and DVD drives by the hundreds of millions as standard components for software distribution. Mass-market CD players enjoyed the same economies of scale. Both markets contracted sharply over the past decade, and the factories that built these mechanisms had little reason to maintain capacity.
In June 2024, D&M Holdings, the parent company behind Denon and Marantz, sent a notice to outside buyers. Final orders for its SACD and CD mechanism had to be placed by the end of July. The Japanese publication avcat.jp described that mechanism as the only SACD and CD drive still being sold to external manufacturers anywhere in the world at that time.
McGowan confirmed that Marantz had stopped producing the drive the previous year and that PS Audio had purchased the entire remaining stock. He noted that the mechanism's price had doubled by the time final orders closed.
The economic logic is straightforward. The hi-fi sector is far too small to sustain mechanism production on its own. As dCS program manager AndrewS observed on the company's forum in May 2025, the mass CD market and the computer software distribution market that once supplied the necessary manufacturing scale had both dried up. He described the specialist audio trade as infinitesimal by comparison.
Brands Most Exposed to the Shortage
The list of manufacturers relying on outside mechanism suppliers includes some of the most expensive names in high-fidelity audio. Alongside dCS, the avcat.jp report identified CH Precision, WADAX, Metronome Technologie, Goldmund, Soulnote, and McIntosh as exposed to the same supply constraints.
dCS builds its own chassis but not its own mechanisms. The company's Varèse Transport uses a D&M mechanism. It switched to D&M after the Esoteric unit in its earlier Vivaldi Transport became unavailable.
Companies that manufacture their own transports face a different reality. TEAC, Esoteric, Cambridge Audio, and Luxman all build their own transport mechanisms. Cambridge Audio currently offers a $599 transport built around its own servo platform, an example of how vertical integration can insulate a brand from upstream supply shocks.
Swapping Drives Is Harder Than It Sounds
A common assumption is that a failing CD player could be repaired by installing a drive from another source. The engineering reality is more complicated. Suppliers sell the mechanism as a bundled assembly: the sled that moves the disc, the laser pickup, and the servo board that controls both, integrated into a single unit.
Substituting a different mechanism requires new control code and mechanical rework around the existing chassis. Richard Dane, who runs Naim's forum, relayed that a candidate drive existed at one point, but the question was what work would be needed to fit it into the existing Star design. The manufacturer of that candidate ceased production before Naim could place a volume order.
The Repair Ecosystem Is Shrinking
For owners of existing players, the long-term outlook depends heavily on whether a compatible repair ecosystem survives. Andrew Wilkinson has been repairing CD players at the component level since 1984, when he joined his family's hi-fi shop in Nelson, Lancashire. His service page now describes him as one of the last specialists still taking this work.
His assessment of repairability follows an inverted curve. Machines made before roughly 1995 are mostly beyond saving. The 1995 to 2005 generation tends to be the most repairable. Players made after 2005, including SACD models, rely more heavily on proprietary software and may require a board, a special chip, or a modular unit that is no longer produced.
Wilkinson notes that most original CD lasers are no longer manufactured, and SACD lasers present an even harder case. The aftermarket for replacement optical pickups splits sharply by origin, making consistent sourcing difficult for repair technicians.
One owner report on the dCS forum illustrates how maintenance needs accumulate over time. A Vivaldi Transport owner wrote in April that his 13-year-old unit needed its optical pickup replaced at year 11 and a tray part at year 12. That is one machine's service history rather than a lifespan specification, but it reflects a pattern that other owners are likely to encounter.
Inventory Can Buy Time
Brands that secured inventory before suppliers stopped taking orders have a practical advantage. In July 2024, just days before D&M's order window closed, dCS product marketing manager James Cook posted a statement to owners saying the company would continue building both its transports using the D&M mechanism and had enough inventory for production and servicing.
Bryston took a similar approach back in 2017. In a Stereophile review of the BCD-3, Art Dudley reported that CEO James Tanner said the company bought transports in bulk to maintain a repair stock, barring unforeseen circumstances.
Naim is reserving its remaining drives for repairs rather than new sales. PS Audio had bought its remaining inventory before announcing in January that suitable drives for the PMG were no longer available.
What Changes When Drives Disappear
The shortage is not affecting every category equally. The disappearing drives are specifically the computer-derived tray loaders that Naim and several other brands built around. Slot-loading designs face different supply dynamics.
Four slot-loading machines remain in current production. Cyrus, Fell Audio, and Pro-Ject each sell one model, and SMSL offers the PL100 Pro at $159. A March 2025 Trusted Reviews review of the Fell Disc found that tray mechanisms available in quantity were limited and tended to cost more than slot-loading alternatives.
A December 2025 buying guide counted ten CD players and transports either shipping or expected within roughly fourteen months, showing that some manufacturers continue to find pathways to market.
What Owners Should Know
For a CD player owner, the limiting factor is increasingly not the disc itself but the parts behind the tray or slot. A player can outlive its original laser, servo board, or transport mechanism only if a compatible replacement still exists or if the manufacturer set aside enough spares before production stopped.
The economics of drive removal from discarded computers and consumer electronics do not support recycling-based supply chains. Drives from the scrap stream are worth approximately one or two dollars apiece, and the cost of shipping outweighs the recovery value except for slim laptop drives in bulk quantities.
CD revenue growth in 2026 is real and meaningful, driven in part by K-pop fandom and collector demand. But the infrastructure that makes physical playback possible is contracting at the same time. The brands that designed around a single surviving mechanism supplier are now feeling the constraints most acutely, while owners of aging players face a narrowing window for repair.