Fiio DM13 review: Get ready to fall in love with CDs all over again

While trying to figure out the best way to approach a review of the Fiio DM13 Portable Stereo CD Player, I decided to not review the Fiio DM13 Portable Stereo CD Player. Let me explain.

I am going to talk about its features and what I think about them, don’t worry. Instead of focusing solely on design, setup, sound quality, battery life, etc. (I’ll get to that), I’m attacking this a little differently. Since the existence of this back-from-oblivion portable CD player has been so polarizing and head-scratching to many I’ve mentioned it to, I thought a more interesting approach would be to review it in terms of who might like it, who won’t, and why or why not.

Maybe you’re old like me and and have loads of CDs you’d like to play again. Or maybe you think the reimagined $149 player is cool and like the idea of getting one but haven’t a clue why. Hopefully this will help.

The specs

But first: reading disc…

Just so we all know what we’re talking about, Chinese electronics company Fiio — which makes excellent, primarily digital devices like DACs and network music streamers — has been on a nostalgia bender of late, taking advantage of the continuing uptick in sales of physical music media. Last summer, it generated a ton of retro hype with its Walkman cassette deck clone, a portable tape player called the CP13, which I reviewed last month.

Hoping to repeat its success, Fiio has brought forth the DM13 portable disc player. It isn’t your dad’s CD Walkman circa 1998, but rather a device that attempts to answer the question, “Can the portable CD player be reimagined to actually be useful again?”

Yes, the Fiio DM13 plays CDs, but that doesn’t mean it’s a dinosaur. The DM13 reads WAV, WMA, and MP3 files, as well as AAC and FLAC files from compact discs. Fiio has also added all kinds of connectivity options, outfitting it with not only two 3.5mm headphone jacks (one a powered output, one a line output) but two balanced 4.4mm outs (PO and LO as well) for a noise-free wired connection with a great pair of headphones or other compatible analog outputs. You’ll need the right cables, though.

Digitally, you can connect the DM13 with a USB-C cable or thumb drive for transferring music to your computer (more on this below), as well as a S/PDIF digital optical/coaxial output, which opens a whole bunch of options for connecting to your hi-fi setup, like integrated amplifiers or an external preamp.

The biggest differentiator between the CD players of old and the DM13 is, of course, Bluetooth. The DM13 actually does it better than many modern devices (including the iPhone), with support for the standard SBC codec, yes, but also aptX, aptX Low Latency, and aptX HD, which means you’ll be able to get much better Bluetooth sound quality out of the player with a pair of headphones, earbuds, or Bluetooth speakers that support it. Most people won’t notice the difference between a wired connection and these aptX codecs, but sound nerds will be pleased.

Outside of that, the DM13 is a sleek (albeit bulky), portable/desktop CD player with all the usual playback features (random, repeat, gapless, favorites) and an eight-hour battery, all for $149, which takes a bit of the sting out of the risk.

Now, back to the question at hand: Who the heck would want to buy one of these?

The nostalgia seeker

Many would argue that as far as physical music media formats go, the tactile ritual of dropping a needle on a vinyl record and admiring the sleeve art is second to none. If you, like me, were born a bit too late for vinyl’s original go-around, then your version of milk crates full of records was, instead, tall, skinny Ikea shelf towers packed with CD jewel cases and Case Logic binders for toting them to parties.

If you’re reading this, it’s likely those CDs are somewhere in the deep-dark reaches of your home, and you have no way to play them. But you want to. Well, you’re in for a treat.

Sure, you could probably find every CD in your collection on Spotify or any number of streaming services, but where’s the fun in that? I had a blast flipping through my Case Logic pages and pulling out old ’90s favorites and discs of long-lost local indie bands I bought off the stage (I was in one of those long-lost indie bands, too).

I got lost down a rabbit hole of old burned mixed CDs I made (or friends made for me) that provided the soundtrack to some traveling I did in the early aughts. The music, and the Sharpie-scribbled labels on the discs, instantly transported me to Australian beaches, hostel bunkbeds, and slow-boat rides down the Mekong river in Laos.

While I do prefer the almost ceremonial process of playing a record and watching it spin around on a turntable, I have to admit that removing a CD from its jewel case, putting it in the DM13, and clicking the lid shut fired off all kinds of nostalgic synapses in my brain. I was also reminded of how cool and detailed some CD booklets and art could be.

The archivist

Streaming music services are great and feature tens of millions of tracks, right there for your search field to serve up to you. But among those jewel cases of yours, maybe you’ve got a few (or many) rare gems that have somehow managed to escape the libraries of Spotify and Apple Music.

Maybe it’s a bootlegged recording of the Beatles at the Cavern Club that your uncle gave you, or the only existing copy of some rap album your crypto bro friend lent you. Or maybe the grunge band you were in in the ’90s put out a few CDs but split up over creative differences before the streaming revolution hit (ahem).

Either way, the Fiio DM13 is an easy tool for getting all those rare tracks off your CDs, not only for preservation but to have at your fingertips whenever you want to give them a listen.

With the DM13’s USB-C connection, I was able to use basic digital recording software, like Audacity, to record music from my CDs onto my computer, much like how vinyl folks do it with a USB turntable.

Some basic know-how is required, in terms of volume levels (it’s a live recording, not a file transfer), file formats, and bit-rate/sample rates, but all-in-all, it’s not difficult.

Additionally, the DM13 itself has a “CD ripping function,” where tracks are copied directly from the player to a USB thumb drive you plug into it. The DM13 rips files in WAV format and at 16-bits/44.1kHz at 1x speed, like the recording feature, but does it silently, so you won’t be able to listen as you do it. After buying a USB-C thumb drive off Amazon (none of my old USB-A thumb drives would work with an adapter), a couple of button presses with the DM13 in USB-out mode and entire discs just copy over to the drive easily. Playback of the WAV files on my computer sounded great, too.

The anti-streamer

One last user I think might be into the Fiio DM13 CD player is the person fed up with paying monthly fees (that keep going up and up) to streaming services and wants to own physical copies of their own music for a change.

Sales of vinyl continues to rise, and more recently, so have CDs, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). There’s an abundance of music available on CDs (Amazon is a great place to look) and major labels still distribute music in the format. It’s also cheaper than vinyl, which has seen a steady rise in price since the format started its comeback several years ago. The average price of a compact disc from artists like Taylor Swift is around $15, and like vinyl, there’s a healthy used marketplace.

Will it save you money? Probably not, unless you already own shelves of CDs. You’d also, of course, be giving up the convenience of all that accessible streaming music, but it’d be yours. And, if you’re a subscriber to a streaming service still yet to offer its users a hi-res quality tier (Spotify, we’re looking at you), then you’ll also be assured that your CDs will sound almost as good as music can sound outside of subscribing to a service like Tidal, Apple Music, or Qobuz that offers lossless-quality audio for audiophiles.

So how does it sound?

OK, now for the more traditional part of the review. For my listening test, I started with my aptX HD-capable B&W Px7 S2 Bluetooth headphones, with the DM13 setup in its desktop mode where you can keep it stable and plugged in to power. I also took it for a walk around the block with its “ESP” mode enabled for a more skip-free read while moving. Fiio says you sacrifice some sound quality in this mode, but I couldn’t hear it. The DM13 didn’t skip at all while walking, but breaking into a light jog caused a couple of skips, like many old-school players did. The DM13 is not built for joggers. It’s boxy and not exactly light at just under a pound, which makes it much more ideal for use at home.

Some discs sounded great, some skipped, and some didn’t play at all, either because they’d met the filthy bottom of that Mekong slow boat, or maybe because I’d bought them bootlegged from a guy selling them off a blanket on the Khao San Road.

Next, I connected the player via S/PDIF to my Cambridge Audio CXA81 integrated amplifier, and even through a handful of the portable Bluetooth speakers I have lying around. In all situations, connecting was easy and, for the most part, the sound was great. The DM13 has no internal EQ, so the sound you get is very much dependent on what you’re listening through.

Playing through headphones that only support the SBC codec (the DM13’s LED display tells you the codec, which is cool) sounded noticeably less defined and clear. AptX support is nice to have to get the most out of your CDs when listening wirelessly.

I didn’t have a set of balanced cables to test the 4.4mm output, but if it sounds better than my trusty Sennheiser HD560S 3.5mm wired headphones I tried, then that’s a bonus, because that was the best-sounding connection of them all. Overall, I have zero complaints with the DM13’s playback features and sound quality.

Bottom line

If you have lots of old CDs, an excellent trip down memory lane is well worth the $149 for the Fiio DM13 . It’s still a reliable and great-sounding music format and, if you like it, there’s an abundance of music in the market to be had. Plus it’s portable, so you can do what I did and get a few laughs from your friends by showing up and dropping your CD binders and the DM13 on the table.

Even considering that you can find all kinds of budget portable CD players on Amazon for under $40, you won’t find any of those with aptX Bluetooth codecs, digital optical, or 4.4 mm balanced outputs. And if the USB ripping/recording feature is something that interests you, you won’t find that on budget players either.

The Fiio DM13 sounds as good as whatever you connect it to, and is a great solution for adding a high-quality CD player to an existing hi-fi setup. If you’re a vinyl collector, adding the DM13 to your setup won’t seem like it’s coming from left field, either. It’s yet another good example of old things becoming new again with a few modern, and much-welcomed, tech upgrades.