The year is 2024 and we’re talking about a Discman. Honestly, I have to chuckle about this, because there are many more convenient ways to listen to music nowadays.

When I think of a “real Discman,” I remember a “Sports” edition one that I owned decades ago. It was durable, water tight, had a built in bass boost, and it was built such that it could take a pounding.

How’d it sound? It was a CD player from Sony - the best of the best. Of course it sounded great! Now granted that was probably close to thirty years ago. Back then, I had nothing to compare it to except previous models that I owned. The headphone I listened to everything on were made by Aiwa. Back then, I paid $100 for them - which at the time was a great deal of money. Especially since I was a kid that worked at McDonald’s earning $4.25 / hour.

Fast forward thirty years…

Enter the FiiO DM13. What improvements have there been with portable CD players in the last three decades? What’s worse?

Improvements#

  1. 4.4mm balanced jack for modern IEMs and headphones.
  2. USB-C rechargeable.
  3. Digital volume controls that keep the volume balanced between the channels at low volumes (compared to cheap carbon potentiometers).

What’s worse?#

  1. The unit casing is metal. While it feels solid, this unit is definitively prone to scratching, dings, and lacks durability. The plastic shell of an older Sports Discman with its weather sealing was a much better option for a portable player.

  1. It has Bluetooth. Might as well just use your phone then.
  2. The buttons and key presses aren’t always responsive. Sometimes they require a harder push, and sometimes they don’t work at all. For example, rewinding within a track can be finicky.
  3. Ripping to a USB stick in .WAV format. Whoever thought of and implemented this nonsense, should be fired. If anything, output to FLAC, or better yet, allow the Discman to be used as a usb-c drive to connect to a computer for ripping.
  4. The recessed switches on the back of the device are hard to toggle and feel like they might get pushed into the case and then be rendered unusable. Just flimsy and shoddy construction.

  1. Desktop mode and regular mode both seem to work the same. The instructions are clear as mud, and I’m not sure desktop mode really does anything.
  2. Audible mechanical noise from the unit when on a desktop. Not terrible, but should be dampened more.
  3. According to the manual ESP results in audible quality loss. There’s no excuse for this. Memory is cheap nowadays. Lossless encoding should be saved to RAM in order to prevent skipping and maintain fb audio quality.
  4. No EQ, no mega bass, nothing.
  5. No remote or smart functionality.

It’s not all bad. It works, sounds as good if not better than any old used portable CD player thanks to its balanced output, it’s available new, should last for the foreseeable future, and isn’t going to break the bank.

If you’re longing for a modern portable Discman that’s worth purchasing, I believe this is really your only choice. Would I recommend it? Meh… it’s ok. I like it, but it does have some quirks. It’s by no means a perfect device.

There’s a reason why iPods became as popular as they did. Today, you’ll have a better experience with every bit as good of sound quality by just ripping your CDs and using a modern DAP or DAC.

In the end, this is still a fun piece of retro tech that I’ll occasionally use. It’s nice to put in a disc, push play, listen to all the tracks in order, and not have to play with a multitude of settings, but rather just listen to the music.