A portable CD player in 2023?

DiscDream is a new portable CD player soon to be released by Moondrop. In late 2022, the Chinese company recruited a ‘veteran audiophile’ who had previously worked on Sony’s Discman project. But it isn’t the nineties anymore…

Overcoming the paucity of options when sourcing a CD tray and read mechanism in 2023, Moondrop has built a “professional” CD servo architecture with Japanese chips for more reliable rotational spin-speed stability and a red laser that reads CDs (as well as CD-R and CD-Rw discs). Against the bumps and knocks of streetlife, Moondrop has insulated the mechanism with “elastic damping” and implemented a data read buffer to help CD playback retain some immunity against skips.

The DiscDream’s D/A conversion circuit is built around a Cirrus Logic Master Hifi chip and dispatches up to 500mW from its 3.5mm headphone output and 2V RMS via the neighbouring 3.5mm line-level socket. Battery life is rated at 10 hours between charges with the USB-C socket used to replenish an internal 3500mAh battery. That same USB-C port doubles as data carrier when the DiscDream is connected to a PC or Mac for USB DAC functionality with support for PCM up to 32bit/384kHz and DSD up to DSD256. A microSD card slot means the unit can also serve as a DAP.

If the DiscDream had a digital output for use with an external DAC, I would be sold immediately, especially at its US$199 asking price. Shipping is estimated to begin in October.

Further information: Moondrop