Fosi Audio - Merak CD Player w/ optical & line outputs, DAC/Amp, and CD ripping to USB (Supports FLAC, WAV, WMA, AAC, & MP3) - Silver

What can I say....CD Players, record players, all coming back in vogue. The Merak by Fosi Audio is built like a brick house. The sound quality of the play when using you desired method, speakers or headphones, will not leave you wanting. The main gripe I have about the device is that the main outlets for the data to come out is either 3.5mm or Toslink. I have done all three methods of usage and have had no issues with any skipping or bad sound. There is a switch on the back that you can toggle to turn on ESP if you are going to play it on some speakers like I have. One more thing I have an issue with is for a company that is wanting to really break it into the Hi-Fi market, they should have included a 4.4 balanced headphone jack as well on the front. One little detail I like on the device is the usage of an actual slider on the side for volume control. Just something that (to me) makes me want to use it as a fidget thing, but it must stay still. The usb port on the back is for ripping the cd straight to a thumb drive to those of us who want to keep a backup. I want to disclose that I did receive this product to review and be reimbursed.

I bought this because I have a lot of old CD's on a shelf that I haven't listened to in 20 years. I am so glad that I did! I hooked this up to my stereo and used a DAC that I bought from Fosi Audio to convert it to an analogue signal. I tried it with and without the DAC. It sounds really good either way, but I do prefer the analogue sound. I am really impressed with the build quality for the price and love being able to listen to my old albums again. It brought back so many memories! I like that it can also play CDR and CDRW discs that I made back in high school. Many of which were not labeled well and I'd forgotten what was on them! The controls are intuitive and the LCD display is really nice.

The sound is buttery smooth and very intuitive. The CD player sounds amazing and integrated seamlessly to my existing audio equipment. The fidelity is amazing, I am currently running it with the toslink cable (not provided), and it sounds amazing. I have kept some CDs that are not streaming anywhere, and was looking for a solution to be able to enjoy them. I have not used the ESP function since this will seat on my media room and it will not suffer from vibration interference. Ripping CDs was a breeze with my laptop, and now I am able to keep digital versions of my music. This CD player is a great addition to any sound system. Specially at the price point. I just wish it would play SACD. Must buy!