Fiio DM13 Portable Stereo CD Player
MSRP $149.00
“This recent tackle the moveable CD participant has trendy upgrades that’ll have you ever dusting off your CD binders for a visit down reminiscence lane.”
Pros
- Sturdy construct
- Various analog and digital outputs
- Bluetooth aptX codec assist
- Easy to use
- 8-hour battery
While attempting to work out one of the simplest ways to strategy a overview of the Fiio DM13 Portable Stereo CD Player, I made a decision to not overview the Fiio DM13 Portable Stereo CD Player. Let me clarify.
I’m going to discuss its options and what I take into consideration them, don’t fear. Instead of focusing solely on design, setup, sound high quality, battery life, and so on. (I’ll get to that), I’m attacking this just a little in another way. Since the existence of this back-from-oblivion moveable CD participant has been so polarizing and head-scratching to many I’ve talked about it to, I assumed a extra fascinating strategy could be to overview it in phrases of who would possibly prefer it, who received’t, and why or why not.
Maybe you’re outdated like me and and have a great deal of CDs you’d like to play again. Or perhaps you suppose the reimagined $149 participant is cool and like the concept of getting one however haven’t a clue why. Hopefully it will assist.
The specs
| Fiio DM13 Portable Stereo CD Player | |
| Price | $149 |
| Colors | Black, white, pink |
| Size | 5.4 x 5.7 x 1 inches (WxLxH), 1 pound |
| Outputs | 3.5mm, 4.4mm balanced (analog), S/PDIF coaxial/optical, USB-C (digital) |
| Bluetooth | Supports SBC, aptX, aptX Low Latency, aptX HD |
| Battery | Up to 8 hours |
But first: studying disc…
Just so we all know what we’re speaking about, Chinese electronics firm Fiio — which makes glorious, primarily digital gadgets like DACs and network music streamers — has been on a nostalgia bender of late, making the most of the persevering with uptick in gross sales of bodily music media. Last summer season, it generated a ton of retro hype with its Walkman cassette deck clone, a conveyable tape participant known as the CP13, which I reviewed last month.
Hoping to repeat its success, Fiio has introduced forth the DM13 moveable disc participant. It isn’t your dad’s CD Walkman circa 1998, however reasonably a tool that makes an attempt to reply the query, “Can the moveable CD participant be reimagined to truly be helpful again?”
Yes, the Fiio DM13 performs CDs, however that doesn’t imply it’s a dinosaur. The DM13 reads WAV, WMA, and MP3 information, in addition to AAC and FLAC information from compact discs. Fiio has additionally added all sorts of connectivity choices, outfitting it with not solely two 3.5mm headphone jacks (one a powered output, one a line output) however two balanced 4.4mm outs (PO and LO as nicely) for a noise-free wired connection with a great pair of headphones or different appropriate analog outputs. You’ll want the proper cables, although.
Digitally, you may join the DM13 with a USB-C cable or thumb drive for transferring music to your pc (extra on this beneath), in addition to a S/PDIF digital optical/coaxial output, which opens an entire bunch of choices for connecting to your hi-fi setup, like integrated amplifiers or an exterior preamp.
The largest differentiator between the CD gamers of outdated and the DM13 is, after all, Bluetooth. The DM13 truly does it higher than many trendy gadgets (together with the iPhone), with assist for the usual SBC codec, sure, but additionally aptX, aptX Low Latency, and aptX HD, which suggests you’ll give you the option to get a lot better Bluetooth sound high quality out of the participant with a pair of headphones, earbuds, or Bluetooth speakers that assist it. Most folks received’t discover the distinction between a wired connection and these aptX codecs, however sound nerds can be happy.
Outside of that, the DM13 is a modern (albeit cumbersome), moveable/desktop CD participant with all the standard playback options (random, repeat, gapless, favorites) and an eight-hour battery, all for $149, which takes a little bit of the sting out of the danger.
Now, again to the query at hand: Who the heck would need to purchase one in every of these?
The nostalgia seeker
Many would argue that so far as bodily music media codecs go, the tactile ritual of dropping a needle on a vinyl record and admiring the sleeve artwork is second to none. If you, like me, have been born a bit too late for vinyl’s authentic go-around, then your model of milk crates stuffed with data was, as a substitute, tall, skinny Ikea shelf towers packed with CD jewel circumstances and Case Logic binders for toting them to events.
If you’re studying this, it’s possible these CDs are someplace in the deep-dark reaches of your house, and you don’t have any approach to play them. But you need to. Well, you’re in for a deal with.
Sure, you might most likely discover each CD in your assortment on Spotify or any number of streaming services, however the place’s the enjoyable in that? I had a blast flipping by means of my Case Logic pages and pulling out outdated ’90s favorites and discs of long-lost native indie bands I purchased off the stage (I used to be in a type of long-lost indie bands, too).
I acquired misplaced down a rabbit gap of outdated burned blended CDs I made (or mates made for me) that supplied the soundtrack to some touring I did in the early aughts. The music, and the Sharpie-scribbled labels on the discs, immediately transported me to Australian seashores, hostel bunkbeds, and slow-boat rides down the Mekong river in Laos.
While I do choose the just about ceremonial strategy of taking part in a file and watching it spin round on a turntable, I’ve to admit that eradicating a CD from its jewel case, placing it in the DM13, and clicking the lid shut fired off all sorts of nostalgic synapses in my mind. I used to be additionally reminded of how cool and detailed some CD booklets and artwork could possibly be.
The archivist
Streaming music providers are nice and have tens of thousands and thousands of tracks, proper there to your search discipline to serve up to you. But amongst these jewel circumstances of yours, perhaps you’ve acquired a couple of (or many) uncommon gems which have one way or the other managed to escape the libraries of Spotify and Apple Music.
Maybe it’s a bootlegged recording of the Beatles on the Cavern Club that your uncle gave you, or the one present copy of some rap album your crypto bro good friend lent you. Or perhaps the grunge band you have been in in the ’90s put out a couple of CDs however cut up up over artistic variations earlier than the streaming revolution hit (ahem).
Either approach, the Fiio DM13 is a simple software for getting all these uncommon tracks off your CDs, not just for preservation however to have at your fingertips everytime you need to give them a hear.
With the DM13’s USB-C connection, I used to be in a position to use fundamental digital recording software program, like Audacity, to file music from my CDs onto my pc, very like how vinyl folks do it with a USB turntable.
Some fundamental know-how is required, in phrases of quantity ranges (it’s a stay recording, not a file switch), file codecs, and bit-rate/pattern charges, however all-in-all, it’s not tough.
Additionally, the DM13 itself has a “CD ripping function,” the place tracks are copied straight from the participant to a USB thumb drive you plug into it. The DM13 rips information in WAV format and at 16-bits/44.1kHz at 1x velocity, just like the recording function, however does it silently, so that you received’t give you the option to hear as you do it. After shopping for a USB-C thumb drive off Amazon (none of my outdated USB-A thumb drives would work with an adapter), a few button presses with the DM13 in USB-out mode and whole discs simply copy over to the drive simply. Playback of the WAV information on my pc sounded nice, too.
The anti-streamer
One final person I believe could be into the Fiio DM13 CD participant is the particular person fed up with paying month-to-month charges (that preserve going up and up) to streaming providers and desires to personal bodily copies of their very own music for a change.
Sales of vinyl continues to rise, and more recently, so have CDs, in accordance to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). There’s an abundance of music accessible on CDs (Amazon is a good place to look) and main labels nonetheless distribute music in the format. It’s additionally cheaper than vinyl, which has seen a gradual rise in value because the format began its comeback a number of years in the past. The common value of a compact disc from artists like Taylor Swift is round $15, and like vinyl, there’s a wholesome used market.
Will it prevent cash? Probably not, except you already personal cabinets of CDs. You’d additionally, after all, be giving up the comfort of all that accessible streaming music, nevertheless it’d be yours. And, should you’re a subscriber to a streaming service nonetheless but to provide its customers a hi-res quality tier (Spotify, we’re looking at you), then you definately’ll even be assured that your CDs will sound nearly pretty much as good as music can sound exterior of subscribing to a service like Tidal, Apple Music, or Qobuz that provides lossless-quality audio for audiophiles.
So how does it sound?
OK, now for the extra conventional a part of the overview. For my listening take a look at, I began with my aptX HD-capable B&W Px7 S2 Bluetooth headphones, with the DM13 setup in its desktop mode the place you may preserve it steady and plugged in to energy. I additionally took it for a stroll across the block with its “ESP” mode enabled for a extra skip-free learn whereas shifting. Fiio says you sacrifice some sound high quality in this mode, however I couldn’t hear it. The DM13 didn’t skip at all whereas strolling, however breaking into a lightweight jog triggered a few skips, like many old-school gamers did. The DM13 isn’t constructed for joggers. It’s boxy and never precisely mild at just below a pound, which makes it far more ultimate to be used at dwelling.
Some discs sounded nice, some skipped, and a few didn’t play at all, both as a result of they’d met the filthy backside of that Mekong sluggish boat, or perhaps as a result of I’d purchased them bootlegged from a man promoting them off a blanket on the Khao San Road.
Next, I related the participant through S/PDIF to my Cambridge Audio CXA81 built-in amplifier, and even by means of a handful of the moveable Bluetooth speakers I’ve mendacity round. In all conditions, connecting was simple and, for essentially the most half, the sound was nice. The DM13 has no inner EQ, so the sound you get could be very a lot depending on what you’re listening by means of.
Playing by means of headphones that solely assist the SBC codec (the DM13’s LED show tells you the codec, which is cool) sounded noticeably much less outlined and clear. AptX assist is sweet to have to get essentially the most out of your CDs when listening wirelessly.
I didn’t have a set of balanced cables to take a look at the 4.4mm output, but when it sounds higher than my trusty Sennheiser HD560S 3.5mm wired headphones I attempted, then that’s a bonus, as a result of that was the best-sounding connection of them all. Overall, I’ve zero complaints with the DM13’s playback options and sound high quality.
Bottom line
If you could have plenty of outdated CDs, a superb journey down reminiscence lane is nicely definitely worth the $149 for the Fiio DM13 . It’s nonetheless a dependable and great-sounding music format and, should you prefer it, there’s an abundance of music in the market to be had. Plus it’s moveable, so you are able to do what I did and get a couple of laughs from your pals by displaying up and dropping your CD binders and the DM13 on the desk.
Even contemplating that yow will discover all sorts of funds moveable CD gamers on Amazon for beneath $40, you received’t discover any of these with aptX Bluetooth codecs, digital optical, or 4.4 mm balanced outputs. And if the USB ripping/recording function is one thing that pursuits you, you received’t discover that on funds gamers both.
The Fiio DM13 sounds pretty much as good as no matter you join it to, and is a good resolution for including a high-quality CD participant to an present hi-fi setup. If you’re a vinyl collector, including the DM13 to your setup received’t seem to be it’s coming from left discipline, both. It’s one more good instance of outdated issues turning into new again with a couple of trendy, and much-welcomed, tech upgrades.
