NINM Lab Long Time No CD Player Review: The Most Fun CD Player in 2023

I thought I was done with CDs and CD players forever when I got my first iPod over 17 years ago. But then Linkin Park released Meteora: 20th Anniversary on CD in April, sending me down a deep rabbit hole in search of a good CD player.

The Sony Walkmans and Aiwas of my youth had long hit the landfill. Naturally, after ordering the three-disc album on Amazon, I typed “CD player” into the Everything Store to see what would come up. What kind of CD player can you get in 2023?

The results weren’t great.

As expected, Amazon is filled with what can only be described as cheap and shoddy garbage. The CD player choices essentially amount to some plastic junk from Craig Electronics (somehow still around) or some plastic junk from a brand you’ve never heard of. Good luck figuring out whether HOTT, ByronStatics, or SingingWood are reputable because the myriad fake four- and five-star reviews aren’t helpful. Such is the current state of Amazon: a wasteland of knockoff products knocking off other knockoffs.

Other big-box retailers such as Best Buy and Target returned similar bargain bin options or none at all.

I made a checklist of features I wanted in hopes of narrowing down the options:

• Portable
• Rechargeable battery (preferably with USB-C)
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Physical buttons
• Anti-skip protection
• Built-in speaker
• Bluetooth

Honestly, I knew I didn’t need all the bells and whistles, but if features, like Bluetooth to connect

Photographs by Raymond Wong