The music industry is in turmoil lately, as streaming services are seeing many musicians pull their music due to dismal royalty payments and AI-generated content being pushed to listeners. Thus, direct-to-fan models are preferred by artists to at least have a livelihood. This marks a moment that is highly conducive to CD listening, which in most instances, delivers better audio quality compared to streaming services that prioritize mediocre audio delivery as the basic plan offered.
Apart from those reasons, physical media is seeing a revival for more reasons than not. Beyond the vinyl-loving crowd, the next best thing is playing your favorite albums on a CD player. Yes, CD players are again hitting popularity, and Fiio wants to serve its audiophile community with all the possible options. The DM15 R2R Portable CD Player is their modern take on a CD player, since the silver disk is seeing a serious revival in 2025.
Designer: Fiio
This one is a successor to the DM13 deck, which is also liked by the audio community. The DM15 R2R is made out of a compact aluminium chassis with a transparent top panel that displays the disc as it spins and plays your favourite tunes. To keep things wire-free, the CD player has an in-built rechargeable battery that gives you around seven hours of non-stop music. Extending the use case scenario beyond just playing your CDs, the player comes with a USB DAC, Bluetooth mode, and Hi-Fi playback with the in-built optical and coaxial ports. To extend the functionality further, it has the customary 3.5mm jack and the balanced 4.4mm line output. In the USB DAC mode, the player outputs music at up to 32-bit/384kHz PCM and native DSD256.
You can stream high-res audio to your wireless headphones or speakers as the player supports codecs including aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive and aptX Low Latency. The CD player comes with an ESP (Electronic Shock Protection) switch to eliminate skipping issues. This comes really handy when travelling as the movement of the CD player can heighten this problem. As an upgrade, the CD player comes with playback and control buttons on the front panel, paired with a tactile volume dial. As suggestive of the name, the CD player employs a resistor ladder to convert digital signals into analog waveforms, which, according to Fiio, translates to a smoother, more organic style of playback many listeners prefer.”
The premium build quality, added features and useful functionality come at a higher price of $270, but they are absolutely justified given what’s on offer. The CD player will be offered in four attractive finishes with pre-orders starting now. The silver and red variants will start shipping. If you want most of the features and functions at a lesser price, the $170 DM13 is the next best thing.
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