The Return of the Discman

I don’t really feel like a gadget guy anymore. I don’t get hot and bothered by the newest origami laptops and I skip past the thousands of posts about the latest iPhone model in my feed reader. But man, I love music and have to admit to a bit of a format fetish. So, when I saw an anouncement about the new DM13 from FiiO, I found myself crushing pretty hard on the concept, design and execution.

For some time, I have desperately wanted a high-quality portable music device that didn’t have a big ol’ screen attached to it and that I couldn’t surf the web on. Little did I know that I would find such a thing in the form of a discman, something I remember fondly but never expected to own again. This updated CD player from FiiO supports AptX, which means it will output higher-quality Bluetooth audio than my phone or iPad. Not only will it play standard CDs, my current favorite physical medium for music, but it can also play discs filled with high-quality FLAC files, as well.¹ The DM13 has a sturdy-looking build and reminds me of the solid, heavy aluminum Sony Discman that my dad had when CDs were still in their infancy. I hope the DM13 sounds as good as it looks. Did I mention you can’t surf the web on it?

The FiiO DM13 is due to be released in silver in September, with additional colors to follow.

1. Ever since buying a CD player with a good DAC and upsampling last year for my birthday, I’ve been hooked on compact discs. ↩︎