FiiO DM15 R2R review – The Most Feature-Rich CD Player Out There?

It’s 2026, and the world has officially gone off the rails. Against the backdrop of a never-ending news cycle prophesying the apocalypse, the urge to unplug and just call it quits is real. But I’m hanging in there. To find the strength to keep putting one foot in front of the other, I have my own secret weapons: books and music. Specifically, the kind of music that neither a power grid failure nor anything else can take away – CDs. This “uncool” hobby is making a serious comeback among those of us who are burned out by the breakneck speed of the modern world.

FiiO has always had its finger on the pulse – and sometimes, they’re the ones setting the beat. They were among the first to drop a Walkman-style cassette player, and they gave us one of the first truly decent portable CD players in years. Our review of that model came out last year, and we walked away very impressed. But time waits for no one, and by late 2025, the long-awaited (well, for me at least) successor arrived. This version promises to be better in every single way. But does it actually live up to the hype?

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Design and controls

The moment you pull the FiiO DM15 R2R out of the box, you know you’re not dealing with more cheap junk from AliExpress. Instead of creaky plastic, you get a solid metal chassis. Instead of a basic segment display, we get a real upgrade. But the star of the show is the transparent lid, which lets you watch the disc spin. It’s a clear nod to the current trend – a design aesthetic FiiO likely “borrowed” from the Moondrop DiscDream and Syitren R300. I’m not complaining; it looks slick, especially with certain CD designs.

The updates don’t stop there. The player now features a proper volume wheel, which is a huge step up from the tiny, flat buttons on the DM13. Now you can adjust the volume blindfolded in total darkness without any annoying clicks. They’ve also added a STOP button – a total classic. How they managed to leave that off the previous version is beyond me. There’s also a three-position bass toggle. I don’t personally use it, but it’s a nice trip down memory lane, reminding me of the “Bass Boost” on my old-school players.

Generally speaking, the interface is more intuitive, though the button placement still raises some eyebrows. On the older model, they were tucked away on top, which made sense for tactile navigation – I could find the pause button while walking just by feeling around in my bag. Now, the buttons have migrated to the display area and shrunk. They’re practically microscopic. It’s a puzzling choice, even if the player looks great.

The other sticking point is the lid mechanism. While the previous version used a physical slider (which worked like a charm), this one has no mechanism at all. As they say, beauty is pain – the transparent lid likely forced their hand here. One way or another, you have to pry the lid open with your fingernails, and it snaps shut with magnets. It’s not the end of the world, but I wouldn’t call it convenient.

If you can’t be bothered with the buttons, it does come with a remote.

The display itself is a major win. It’s no longer a segment screen but a smaller LCD that packs in way more info. Most importantly, it finally shows the battery level! I still find it hard to believe the DM13 buried such a basic feature. Now, all the vitals are right there at a glance.

Sound

Both players sound fantastic. I raved about the DM13 and still think it’s a stellar choice for anyone who values high-fidelity sound and good headphones. But the FiiO DM15 R2R had to stand out from the crowd, and FiiO really swung for the fences here. No one would have blamed them if they had just updated the screen and design, but they went deeper. The DM15 R2R uses a proprietary FiiO four-channel, fully differential 24-bit R2R DAC, built from 192 precision thin-film resistors. For comparison, the DM13 uses dual CS43198 Delta-Sigma DAC chips. The R2R architecture delivers a more neutral, organic sound with a touch of warmth, but without any muddiness.

It’s a matter of taste, of course. Both sound great, but the FiiO DM15 R2R is more powerful and less “colored.” It packs a much bigger punch in terms of amplification. The single-ended output delivers 310 mW+310 mW, easily topping the DM13. For balanced audio, the DM15 pushes 1150 mW+1150 mW, which is a massive jump from the DM13’s 660 mW per channel. This extra oomph means the DM15 can handle demanding, power-hungry headphones with ease and control.

That’s all great for those of us who stick to wired gear. But the player has leveled up across the board: it sports a Qualcomm QCC3095 Bluetooth 5.4 chip, supporting high-end codecs like aptX, aptX Adaptive, aptX HD, and aptX Low Latency (aptX-LL). Plus, the DM15 R2R doubles as a HiFi-grade USB DAC, supporting up to 384 kHz/32-bit PCM and native DSD256.

Beyond the headphone jacks, it’s equipped with optical and coaxial digital outputs, as well as 3.5 mm and 4.4 mm line outs for connecting to external amps or active speakers. This makes it a perfect digital transport for a larger home setup. It’s hard to find something this thing can’t do.

Firmware Frustrations

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, though. Every once in a while – rarely, but it happens – I ran into playback glitches. A weird static noise would pop up during a track, only to disappear shortly after. It’s infuriating, and I’m crossing my fingers that a firmware update irons out these kinks.

The update process itself is a bit of a headache. To update the system, you need a 32GB FAT32 flash drive. You drop the file in the root directory, plug it into the “USB IN” port, and find “Upgrade” in the menu. Simple enough. However, if you want to update the USB portion (to improve its performance as a computer DAC), a flash drive won’t cut it. You have to tether it to a Windows PC, install FiiO’s proprietary drivers, and run a specific utility. As a Mac user, this kind of oversight is a real letdown.

Verdict

The FiiO DM15 R2R is, for me, more exciting than most tech releases. Unlike yet another Bluetooth speaker, a CD player presents a unique challenge for engineers: how to take a retro gadget and make it feel at home in 2026. Instead of just playing the nostalgia card, FiiO loaded this thing with a modern aesthetic and every bell and whistle an audiophile could want. I still miss the compact, rounded shapes of the late 00s (an art form that seems to be lost to time), but even with its slightly chunky frame, the FiiO DM15 R2R hits the mark.

Does that mean it’s perfect? Far from it. The playback glitches are a real downer, but I’m betting on those being “day one” software bugs. Otherwise, I have to hand it to FiiO for listening to feedback and making a serious effort to fix their previous mistakes.

Where to buy

FiiO

Design 9
Materials 10
Convenience 8
Controls 7
Sound 9
Price 8