Moondrop unveils Discdream 2 Ultra high-fidelity portable CD player with dual-DAC, balanced headphone output, and USB sound card mode supporting PCM and DSD audio

Moondrop has announced the upcoming Discdream 2 Ultra and Discdream 2 high-fidelity CD players as follow-ups to the original Discdream CD player launched earlier this year. The Discdreams are engineered for audiophiles with the help of a Sony veteran, who has thirty years of experience in Sony Discman research and development, for a delicate and warm sound.

The Discdream 2 Ultra CD player improves upon the original Discdream and Discdream 2 by adding a 4.4 mm balanced headphone output driven by dual DACs. The Discdream 2 only has a single DAC. The balanced connection outputs 222 mW at 32 Ω with a maximum voltage of 2 Vrms. When playing music from CDs, the Ultra has a dynamic range of 93 dB with a THD of 0.00177% at 1kHz through the balanced headphone jack.

All Discdreams can be used as a USB sound card when connected to PCs and Macs. In this mode, the players are capable of playing PCM (44.1 kHz to 384 kHz) and DSD (2.8224 MHz to 11.2896 MHz) audio streams. When playing music as a sound card, the Ultra has a dynamic range of 131 dB with a THD of 0.00058% at 1 kHz through the balanced headphone jack.

Both Discdream 2 players have a regular 3.5 mm headphone jack, and a combination 3.5 mm line out and optical line out jack, but drop the microSD card and DAP of the original Discdream. The 3.5 mm headphone connection outputs 112 mW for the Ultra or 123 mW for the Discdream 2 at 32 Ω with a maximum voltage of 2 Vrms.

The Moondrop Discdream 2 Ultra has an MSRP of $289.99 (here on Amazon), and the Moondrop Discdream has an MSRP of $149.99 (here on Amazon). Both are expected to ship within 2-4 weeks. Readers waiting for their Moondrops to arrive can enjoy some old-school tapes with the FiiO CP13 portable cassette player (here on Amazon).