Moondrop DISCDREAM Review – Discotheque

The $199 Moondrop DISCDREAM is a very-good sounding (trans)portable CD/SD-card player that drives even demanding headphones like my 300 ohm Sennheiser HD 600 well and also works as a DAC /amp for your computer. Whilst it features a dedicated line out, it sadly lacks digital outputs.

The Moondrop DISCDREAM was kindly supplied by SHENZHENAUDIO for my review – and I think them for that. You can purchase it here.

Introduction

The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony, and first released in Japan back in 1982. CDs were very expensive in the mid 1980s in my native West Germany — more than twice the cost of an LP (how times have changed!). My friends, professional classical musicians, were fascinated by the detail retrieval compared to analog sources at the time.

CDs buyers frequently purchased this digital format for experiencing the sound quality — and not necessarily for the content. I once ended up with a 1907 (!) recording by Enrique Caruso, which sounded…terrible.

When it comes to vinyl I had issues as, in Germany, customers could play records in stores, then put them back on the shelf. I frequently purchased “new” albums with fingerprints and scratches. The CD came to the rescue.

I started acquiring digital in 1988 and have accumulated >3000 CDs since. Thanks to the Apple Airport Express, I started ripping my CDs as early as 2003, but the physical copies remained…cluttering our house up. Ask my wife.

In the meantime, CD prices have come down considerably, whereas vinyl has skyrocketed during its recent comeback. Hipsters have embraced analog technology and vintage Hifi stores’ sales soar. And, in analog…y to the mid 1980s, just inversely, they purchase vinyl for the sound experience and not so much for the music.

How else would anybody fork out >$50 for an obscure Jethro Tull album or Fleetwood Mac’s Greatest Hits…when you can pick up CD versions in a thrift store for a couple of bucks? I also don’t see the need for purchasing post 1982 recordings that have been produced for digital media.

Been there, done that. It sometimes pays to be old. And as history repeats itself, hipsters are increasingly picking up CDs, whereas serious equipment reviewers like Steve Guttenberg have always relied on this medium. I belong to the latter and have never given up on CDs (while dusting off my old Thorens TD147 record player occasionally).

Was the race on for old vinyl, so has this hunt changed for original CD recordings, as many if not most recent remasters suffer from dynamic compression: sound great in your car stereo but not on your $$$$$ home system.

Today, decent, affordable CD players and transports have become rare, as not many companies produce drive mechanisms, possibly for the lack of customer demand. Strictly speaking, any moving medium has become obsolete with the advent of SSDs.

But since the world typically rotates in cycles, the CD is currently experiencing a comeback – and some manufacturers have discovered it: Shanling and SMSL have released HiFi CD Players recently.

Moondrop, the company out of my Chinese Alma Mater Chengdu, Sichuan, have expanded lately, from originally mainly earphones into headphones, dongle DACs, and now a portable CD Player. Their DISCDREAM is the product of Moondrop’s cooperation with a senior developer who had been involved in Sony’s Discman concept more than 30 years ago.

The company wanted to supply all these guys with a portable CD player, who cannot find a working vintage one, thereby integrating the latest technology such as modern DAC chips and amplification. The DISCDREAM also has functionalities the old Discmen lacked. It looks like this, bigger than the old portables:

In a companion article, I will compare old and new CD player generations.

Specifications Moondrop DISCDREAM

Physical Things

In the box are: the player, a USB-C charging cable and poster-sized manuals in English, Chinese, and Japanese…and the QC card.

The player’s shell is made of metal with a lid mainly of glass, which makes for an attractive visual effect watching the spinning CD. But it is also a fingerprint magnet and prone to scratching. Have your Windex ready. There are 4 rather grippy rubber feet on the bottom. A protective bag of soft fabric would have been good but is not included.

The design is reminiscent of the wall-mounted Nakamachi CD changers you found in 1990s record stores. I remember auditioining music with these at MusicPlex on Portage and Main in Winnipeg, MB, and at HMB on Catherine St. in Montreal, PQ.

Check the product page for further details.

Functionality and Operation

The DISCDREAM does

• play CDs and SACDs gaplessly
• play music from a micro SD card
• act as DAC and amp for a computer source [and for DAPs, too]
• feature a dedicated line out
• offer a 3..5 mm headphone jack

It does not

• have digital outputs
• rip CDs
• have a balanced circuit
• have Bluetooth capabilities
• have a remote

Interface

Front Panel

…features six buttons for the usual operation and also a crisp display.

See here for operational details

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Side Panels

The right panel features an SC-card slot (for music), a dedicated line out, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. The left panel is blank.

Back Panel

You find the on/off switch, a pinhead LED (green when charging), and a USB-C port for charging and connecting to a computer.

Playing Music from CD, SD Card, and PC

You can switch between these three different sources with the button next to the display.

Playing CDs is straight forward…you lift up the lid and mount your CD, just like on your record player…and push the start button. The drive starts swiftly and operates quietly. Track changes (forward-backward) are smooth. If you wish, you can leave the lid up, just like on your turntable.

Operating music from an SD card is a different story as the small display is much simpler than that of a DAP. The system ignores folder hierarchies and labels songs from 1 to X. You therefore can never be quite sure what song is playing and what album will be next. An error sign appears when the music organization on the SD card is too complex for the system to handle.

As to USB: works for my Mac with the included USB-C to USB-A cable. Since both DISCDREAM and current MacBooks use USB-C ports, I had to dig out an adapter. Unfortunately, the USB-C port is NOT a digital out – I tested it with an external DAC: it does not work.

Outside the specs: I also connected my iPhone and the Hidizs AP80 Pro-X DAP to the DISCDREAM’s USB-C port. As expected, iPhone “did not support this accessory” and the DAP worked well…but with a caveat: since the USB-C port is also used for charging, the DISCDREAM started “milking” the DAP.

Amplification and Power

The DISCDREAM has a volume scale up to 50 (check the specs above for detailed numbers). I run the 32 ohm Beyerdynamic Custom Pro at 7-8 and the hungry 300 ohm Sennheiser HD 600 on 19-20, at leisurely listening. On quiet recordings, and craving some oomph, I crank the dial just above 30 with the Senns. Plenty of power for most headphones.

Sound

The DISCDREAM sounds like a classic mid-tier CD player. Very clean, very good separation, very transparent image, very good resolution. Very “widescreen” with the HD 600. Excellent note definition with well rounded notes. I am surprised how good it sounds.

Let’s put it like that: I Iistened to Dire Straits’ “Brother ins Arms” album, the complete Freischütz opera by Carl M. von Weber, and Pink Floyd’s “Echoes”. Could not stop.

In an unfair but useful comparison, my $1300 Marantz SA8005 with integrated headphone amp sounds grittier, deeper, fuller, more organic, with more bass rumble, but it also has a narrower stage. The Moondrop sounds a bit more subtle, more polished, finer, and wider. But the differences are not earth shattering. I’d tie them in terms of overall technicalities.

My 23 year-old TOTL Panasonic SL-CT780 portable player also manages the HD 600 (to my surprise). It sounds narrower, duller, and is technically much less refined than the DISCDREAM, particularly in terms of imaging, resolution, and upper extension.

Last but not least did I compare the DISCDREAM by itself vs. plugged into the EarMen CH-Amp. Again, the differences were not huge (unless you are in dire need for excess power). The CH-Amp delivered a slightly more relaxed, deeper image, the Moondrop’s built-in amp was a bit more forward. This means that the DISCDREAM is a mature device by itself.

Real-Life Use

The DISCDREAM is kind of an oddball in that it is of desktop size (with a footprint even larger than the EarMen stack) but comes with a battery and no digital out for connecting it to a DAC. On the other hand, it is too large for use on the bus or when walking downtown. Call it transportable rather than portable. And no-one would carry their CDs to a hotel room either.

So yes, you can use it with your phone’s 5V power supply (or the ifi iPowerX or Allo Nirvana) and you can plug it into an amp, if necessary, but this defies its purpose.

For me, it comes down to use within the house, being on the sofa or in bed. The DISCDREAM is kind of its own movable desktop stack. Finally…as I really hate my desk.

Concluding Remarks

The Moondrop DISCREAM fills a niché occupied by mainly older listeners who are still sitting on their prehistoric CD collection – and hipsters who are newly discovering this medium. It plays my CDs satisfyingly well, and does justice even to demanding headphones. I finally pick up these stashes again after having ignored them for the last 30 years. A very engaging listening experience that is also optically appealing…when the disc spins.

What a very good idea you had, Moondrop.

Until next time…keep on listening!

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