Moondrop launches Discdream portable CD player with DAP for audiophiles on February 9 in Japan

Moondrop has targeted February 9, 2024 for the launch of the Discdream portable CD player in Japan. The Hi-Fi player was engineered by a 30-year Sony Discman R&D veteran to target audiophiles, thus the Discdream also has a HQ digital audio player compatible with the latest digital audio file formats. The player soft-launched late 2023 in China and America, but supply chain and design issues quickly halted shipments.

During the first portable CD player era over a decade ago, the best that could be expected were models that used 1-bit digital-to-analog converters that simultaneously reduced the noise floor while pushing conversion artifacts beyond the 20 kHz limit of human hearing. Still, these portables lacked many of the advances that modern DAPs possess to output even higher quality audio with lower noise and distortion.

The Discdream utilizes many DAP engineering advances in this audiophile-grade CD player that measures 6.7 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches (169 x 154 x 32 mm). The first key to HQ audio is the use of a 32-bit MasterHiFi Cirrus Logic decoding chip along with three audio-grade oscillators for highly accurate timings. Coupled with a top-grade motor drive and laser head mounted with electronic and physical shock protection, CDs are ready with a high degree of accuracy.

All the electronics are powered by a 3500 mAh battery feeding 6 independent, stabilized power supply chips that can output 2 Vrms through the line out port. The headphone port gets its own amplifier circuit and 500 mW output. The result is pristine audio with 115 dB of dynamic range and 0.00037% harmonic distortion.

Knowing that modern audiophiles also play digital audio files, the Discdream incorporates DAP functionality with a microSD card slot and USB-to-PC connectivity to function as a desktop sound card. The digital player can play APE, FLAC, LL-AAC, MP3, OGG, and WMA files on a card and supports direct streaming of PCM (44.1 to 384 kHz) and DSD (2.8224 to 11.2896 MHz) from a PC.

The Moondrop Discdream has a MSRP of $199 in America and will have a MSRP of 37,500円 in Japan. You'll want to pair it with top-grade, wired headphones (like this at Amazon).

(Prices, availability, and launch date may continue to change given Moondrop's fluid history with this product.)