- km5 is collaborating with Kojima Productions on a limited edition CD player
- The Cp1 features Bluetooth 5.3, a 3.5mm headphone jack and more
- It's inspired by Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and comes in neon orange
Sony might be planning to wind down its production of PlayStation game discs, but physical media still has plenty of fans. Among them is auteur game director Hideo Kojima, whose studio Kojima Productions just announced a new collaboration with boutique Japanese audio brand km5, to celebrate that fact.
You can now buy an official Death Stranding 2: On the Beach version of km5's Cp1, a compact CD player that looks like a minimalist picture frame. It features wireless Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity so you can hook it up to one of the best Bluetooth speakers, or your wireless earbuds, in addition to a 3.5mm headphone jack if you'd prefer a more retro vibe.
It's got all the expected controls (a Bluetooth pairing button, play/pause, stop, fast forward, and rewind) in a row of clicky tactile buttons, and even a built-in battery which supports roughly eight hours of playtime, so you can take it on the go. And unlike retro players with nasty AA-type batteries, charging here is via USB Type-C. There's also a little LED display, which shows the current track number, and a little sleeve that you can use to display album art.
The Death Stranding 2 edition is, naturally, translucent neon orange and is designed to look like the BB Pod from the game — that's the glowing jar that contains the adorable baby that you use to detect invisible enemies. It's got a few little decals to really drive home the look, including little text warnings like 'ensure lock is tight', and comes nestled in special packaging alongside a card insert inspired by the series.
It looks like a lovely little collectible and I already know that it's a capable little CD player, having used its big brother, the Cp2, for a few years now — the only real difference between the two models being the addition of a small speaker on the Cp2. I picked it up in Tokyo before the brand was more readily available worldwide, wanting a cute CD player that would be compact enough to fit on my shelf next to my extensive (and dare I say, pretty impressive) J-pop collection.
I normally have mine hooked up to my beefy JBL Boombox 4 (in a setup that TechRadar audio expert Matt Bolton once described as "insanity") blasting tunes as I work — right now Ano's single Kill Love. While the fidelity is obviously not quite as good as lossless streaming, there's simply nothing quite like the properly exploring a beautifully made physical album or the tactile sensation of popping in a new disc.
If you want to get your hands on this limited edition CD player, you can grab it online via the km5 website for $199 / £175 / AU$315, excluding shipping and any customs duties. That makes it about $40 / £40 / AU$60 more than the standard model. You might want to make haste though, as I expect it to sell out fast.
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➡️ Read our full guide to the best hi-res music players
1. Best overall:
Activo P1
2. Best budget hi-res player:
Fiio JM21
3. Best step-up hi-res player:
Astell & Kern A&norma SR35
