The American manufacturer EarMen presents the versatile and portable music player Colibri, for great sound on the go.
Of course, you can listen to music on the go via a smartphone. With a bit of luck there is a decent DAC integrated, or you can plug in an external pocket one. In the latter case, the ‘hassle’ factor obviously increases. And so there is still a market for portable music players, with the high-res models being particularly interesting. Like this new Colibri from EarMen. The heart is formed by an ESS ES9281 Pro DAC chip. This allows you to play PCM in a quality up to 32 bit/384 kHz, DSD64, DSD128 and MQA. EarMen has opted for a gold-plated circuit board and a built-in battery. You connect 3.5mm unbalanced or 4.4mm balanced headphones to it. The fully CNC-milled housing from an aluminum block can take a beating. The price seems reasonable at $390.