Fiio grabbed plenty of attention with its reboot of the classic portable cassette player earlier in 2024, so it’s no surprise to see that the company’s latest product is another blast from the past: The DM13, a portable CD player that evokes the original Sony Discman. Fiio plans to sell a silver version of the DM13 in September for $179, with red, blue, titanium, and black versions following later in the year.
Though the DM13 is indeed a portable CD player in the spirit of those 1980s/1990s devices, it’s been thoroughly modernized. Instead of replaceable AA batteries, a rechargeable cell provides up to eight hours of playback. There’s also an available desktop mode that bypasses the battery when the unit is plugged into a power outlet.
The player is equipped with a remarkable number of outputs. In addition to a USB port (which can send digital audio directly to a computer), there’s an optical port, and a line-level analog output, making the DM13 an easy add-on for home hi-fi setups. Plus, there are two headphone outputs: an unbalanced 3.5mm jack for standard wired earbuds and headphones, and a 4.4mm balanced output for audiophile in-ear monitors and headphones.
You aren’t limited to wired listening, however, as the DM13 also has Bluetooth with support for SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, and aptX LL (low latency) Bluetooth codecs.
You can play standard audio CDs, but the DM13 will also read lossless audio FLAC and WAV, plus WMA, AAC, and MP3 files that have been written to a recordable disc.
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