I too have a carousel player, residing in the closet. I also have a 45 jukebox that I haven't used in ages.

AFA music versions, when I was collecting CD's, I learned very quickly to not buy anything labeled, "remastered". It's easy to discern an imitative tune when you're familiar with the original.

Why couldn't they be fixed ?
I repair audio equipment, including CD players of all ages and brands and average success rate is over 80% (the remaining 20% failures are mostly recent players who can't be, and are not designed to be repairable)
Some very early laser units are unavailable (or very expensive) but most other parts can still be found.
Failure of specialized chips are very rare and all faults are not laser-related: worn out loading belts, mechanical issues, hardened grease, power supply capacitors, cold PCB solder joints, dusty lenses, etc... are all very common issues.

Well, gee, why didn't I think of that. I've only been doing this for 40+ years I was of course referring to the ones that CAN't be fixed, not the ones that CAN.

As you should be well aware, custom chips are either not available, or prohibitively expensive, if you are lucky enough to figure out which one is the culprit. Ditto with laser assemblies, but you know that also.

And lastly, there's the question of ... should I spend 4 hours trying to restore a CD player, and hitting some roadblock or other at the end of that trail, or a high end Sansui or Pioneer receiver ?? Or amp. Or something else that someone is willing to actually pay to have fixed. While when I was in business building TV trucks, my labor rate ended up being about 25c /hr, I do not feel like duplicating that in my retirement tyvm

You wrote in a previous post above:

... Regarding CD’s, a huge obstacle is that players are virtually unrepairable...

Without being more specific. And this statement is untrue. You may feel that fixing CD players is economically not profitable for you but this doesn't mean they can't be fixed.

Well, like you I'm doing audio equipment repairs (professionally) for 40 years now and from my experience I would say that a 80% success rate is pretty good (and far from "virtually unrepairable"), actually much better than for cassette tape decks or "home theater" amplifiers (which I no longer accept). I very seldom needed to replace a "custom" chip in a CD player, the most failure prone chips are some motor drivers (or transistors) which are running hot but these too are readily available for a few cents. About 40% of the CD players brought in have only mechanical issues, mostly in the motorized tray or clamp loading, which can be fixed by replacing a small belt (or two) and cleaning/lubrification. Most complete CD mechanisms (including laser, mecha assembly and motors) can be bought for under $25.
Repair price and what the owner is willing to pay (and what you charge hourly) is another debate and not the topic of this discussion, but all my customers were happy to pay up to $100 to fix a high quality (high end) CD player which will never be manufactured again.
Of course, entry level cheap CD players don't worth to be fixed, as well as 90% of the modern "programmed obsolescence" plastic crap and other cheap disposable electronic junk we're flooded with. But we all know that...

What can I say. You're just better than I am. You win. Do you feel better now ?

I can't even take the cover off a unit for $100. Perhaps we have different clients, eh ?

I'm not "better" (nor worse) and there are very likely many items you'll gladly (and successfully) fix that I wouldn't touch at any price.
It all depends on your experience, preferences, and many other personal/economical factors.
The real hard fact is that repairing (all) consumer electronic items is now a dying trade and no longer economically profitable, except for some high end (very expensive) items, and that's what I'm mostly doing.
I (more or less) started my career in electronic servicing when the CD was introduced, I liked the technology then and still do today. I went to CD service training seminars at JVC and SONY and learned a lot about how they worked and how to fix them. I have no idea, but the number of CD players I've repaired during my long (now ending) career must be in the multi-hundreds.
I think the best quality vintage CD players should be preserved and repaired whenever possible, and in most cases it is. And my clients feel the same way too.
There's already enough waste on this planet, no need to add more...

And (btw) I don't know the origin of this unfounded rumor that audio CD players are no longer manufactured or sold. A friend of mine, owner of a Hi-Fi shop, has no less than 22 different models from various brands displayed on his shelves (all 202x new productions) and he sells them quite regularly. Some are cheap but I don't even dare to mention the price of the most expensive one...

Hello guys,
I have repaired my Cd and dvd - laser disc players most of them are fairly simple like belts is a big issue and I do repair home theater amps and receivers plus old amplifiers .
Sincerely richard

I can’t resist jumping into the fray.
People like the sound of vinyl for the same reason we like large diaphragm microphones, because the harmonic distortion products, although subliminal, create a feeling of warmth.

The aesthetic qualities of records and their sleeves are tactile, like books, kinesthetic.

So, when will we debate rescuing the DAT medium, I’m still clinging on to my Sony Porta DAT, nostalgically.

Or that 24/48k should be the new default standard (that’s what I record as)

My new original album I'm planning to release on full production audio cassette (w lyric fold out if I can afford it) in a small production run rather than a small run of CD's , as I would not be able to sell CD's at live performances or mail order anymore to anyone, whereas I would certainly sell a few (not many) high quality audio cassettes as a novelty, at least to a younger crowd. I could not afford to manufacture records and it seems to be the only affordable "physical " alternative right now.
Cassette players and record players are going to be around for a lot more years due to repairability (as Barry points out above)
than CD players and soon the most recent digital devices won't have CD capability to play them or access them anymore.