When the Sony Discman and its various portable CD player counterparts were largely killed off by the iPod, mainstream portable music never quite recovered its drive towards quality over all else.
Which is why we’re delighted to see the Slanling EC Zero AKM Portable CD player break cover with some of the convenience of the modern era, but with respect for preserving audio fidelity of the high quality physical medium.
The new $319 player supports Bluetooth headphones and speakers without the inherent compromises of going wireless. With Bluetooth 5.3, it supports aptX Adaptive which delivers hi-res audio. It’s not quite lossless and the quality won’t be as good as if you’re connected via a wired 3.5mm or 4.4mm cable, but it’s enough to make bothering with a CD player feel worthwhile.
The player itself has a number of innovations that make it a good option for portable tunes. There’s a new active magnetic clamp that continually adjusts both its own position and the pressure it exerts on the disc. That results in a more stable spin and less of the whirring noise that undermined walking around with your CD player in the past.
There’s also a new compact CD Drive system which the company says offers “desktop level performance” and gapless, error-free playback for all CDs. There’s a rechargeable 5,500mAh battery that supports ten hours of playback when using wired headphones and 18 hours via Bluetooth. It supports external power too.
There are a couple more aces up the sleeve too. Firstly, the EC Zero AKM doubles up as a DAC (Digital to Analogue Converter) for a smoother, more natural soundscape from your CDs, and it’ll also rip the content of your discs to a hard drive in real time. So, one four minute song takes four minutes to copy to your drive.
There are tactile buttons, a neat 1.68-inch LCD screen interface, a 100-step physical volume slider, and a button lock to prevent you skipping tracks and interrupting playback in other ways while on the move. The disc cover is made from tempered glass and there’s a single piece metal chassis in this premium looking construction.
It’s available to buy in the US now, but with no news on a UK release. Amazon UK is offering an import model.
