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- Shanling releases new, retro EC Play portable CD player
- Lightweight, but with many connection options
- Sells in May for $199 / £209 (about AU$420)
CD players have remained in vogue despite the rise (and fall?) of streaming, but now retro audio tech is making a comeback (including cassette players, somehow), so too are '90s-inspired CD players.
Chinese hi-fi company Shanling has just announced the EC Play, a new and understated disk machine coming in silver, black or green.
It's set to sell from May, for $199 / £209 (about AU$420), less than the firm's higher-end portable players like the ECZero AKM which goes for $319 (about £244 / AU$490).
As you'd hope for a portable CD player, it's a little thing. It measures 14.2 x 12.5 x 2.6 cm — little more than a CD itself — and weighs 418g. That makes it lighter than the average regulation FIFA soccer ball, which are allowed to be between 410g and 450g. [Editor's note: I have no idea why we are now measuring our CD players in soccer balls, but I have decided to allow it.]
It has a clean shell, rather like the FiiO DM13, without the see-through section or design flair we often see from this kind of tech.
Yet a glance at the above picture shows various buttons, displays and ports. The thing may be lightweight, but it hides plenty of features.
A CD player with plenty of tricks
The Shanling EC Play doesn't just work with your standard 3.5mm headphones, but also has a 4.4mm port, and a Coax output too.
If you like retro but you've not gone all the way to the wired-only life, it also handles Bluetooth playback. It supports AAC, LDAC and SBC codecs, and is on the Bluetooth 6.0 standard.
The Cirrus Logic DAC supposedly is designed for a "natural and fun sound", and there's a built-in dual headphone amp that can cater for IEMs and headphones that need a bit more oomph, as well as your standard wired bud.
You can also plug the player into a PC, laptop or phone via USB, and it'll act as a DAC for PCM 32-bit/384kHz and DSD256 playback.
The EC Play's battery life is, according to Shanling, 12 hours. Naturally this'll vary based on how you listen to your music, but it's above average for this kind of gadget.
According to Shanling, the EC Play is designed not for top-end audio specs and unique features, but "to recreate the days of old", which is apparently "when portable CD players were convenient and a common part of daily life".
I'm not holding my breath to see this kind of tech commonly used on public transport, but Shanling's right in one way. Its EC Play seems convenient to use on the go or at home, with that versatility likely to win over some buyers.
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