Arafuna Portable CD Player review: Classic with extras

Key Takeaways

• The Arafuna Portable CD Player offers high-quality lossless audio and is portable with a 12-hour battery life and EQ presets.
• This CD player has a retro feel but includes modern features like a rechargeable battery and support for micro SD cards.
• While a built-in speaker and included earbuds could be better, the Arafuna is a solid choice for those looking for a portable CD player.

CDs are still one of the best ways to listen to music as they provide high quality lossless sound in an affordable and portable way. But these days, most people don’t have CD drives in their computers, and if you like to experiment with formats, you need a way to listen to those precious CDs. That’s where a portable CD player comes in, and the Arafuna Portable CD Player from Amazon is one of the best options right now.

The Arafuna looks like any popular portable CD player from the start, but has a few modern features, including a rechargeable battery and EQ presets. I put this player to the test to see if it’s worth getting your old CDs out of storage.

Pricing, specifications, and availability

The Arafuna Portable CD Player costs $65 and can be purchased from Amazon. It comes in one color: classic black. It’s the size of any standard portable CD player, measuring 5.5 x 5.5 x 1.14 inches and weighing 9.2 ounces.

The Arafuna has a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which charges via the included USB-C cable. Battery life is about 12 hours, and fully charging the 1400mAh battery takes about 4 hours.

This CD player has a 3.5mm port for wired headphones or earbuds. It also has a built-in speaker if you like to listen to music loudly. Of course, you can also connect it to a speaker using the 3.5mm port. The Arafuna comes with some really cool earbuds. With those, you get two pairs of different sized ear tips. This device does not support Bluetooth, so you will need to use wired headphones or earbuds with it.

Although the Arafuna is close to a standard portable CD player, it has several features that make it stand out compared to cheaper or older CD players. Alongside the top-charged battery and built-in speaker, it has bypass technology and EQ presets.

What I liked about the Arafuna Portable CD Player

It’s everything a CD player should be

The Arafuna Portable CD Player is very easy to use, which I really appreciate. A standard CD player, you just insert a CD, turn it on and press play. You don’t need to do anything else to enjoy your music. In true retro tech fashion, I also like that there is no Bluetooth connectivity. The size and shape of the device reminded me a lot of my old Sony CD player from childhood, with its compact, round shape and ease of use.

However, the Arafuna has a few extra features that the CD player I had growing up didn’t have. For example, the Arafuna has a built-in speaker and can play music from a micro SD card, both of which were not common in older CD players, and are easy to have. Most notably, it has EQ settings.

You can choose between automatic EQ, bass boost, pop, jazz, rock, and classic. The default EQ setting has a typical consumer sound profile, with slightly enhanced bass and balanced highs and mids, and is just as enjoyable as the default setting. The next setting, bass boost, has very high bass and low frequencies, until everything sounds muddled and the treble is covered by the volume of the bass. The pop and jazz settings are similar in that they both have a more developed treble, but pop sounds softer than jazz, with more midrange sound and bass frequencies than pop. Rock is a very fun EQ setting, with treble that falls in the normal range of a boosted guitar, a very loud snare, and a bass boost, just enough to make bass lines sound interesting while not taking away from the rest of the track. Finally, the classic setting has higher bass than the default EQ setting but it’s the same. I liked the rock setup the most, and the jazz. I think the default EQ setting would suit most people just fine, but it depends on your listening preferences.

I think the default EQ setting would suit most people just fine, but it depends on your listening preferences.

I tried these EQ settings using my Sony WH-1000XM4 and Audio-Technica ATH-SR50 headphones, as well as my Skullcandy Jib and Sony MDR-EX15AP earbuds, and they all gave me the same results with the settings of each EQ. If you are using studio headphones with a flat frequency response, you may find that the bass frequencies are not as loud as described in some of the EQ settings, but they will be loud enough with auto, bass boost, and classic EQ settings. .

The device has bypass protection, which, in my experience, worked very well. Moving around, fiddling with the CD player, and even tossing it up and down didn’t cause any skips or interruptions when listening to music, making the Arafuna a great portable CD player. running, or even riding a faulty train. I can’t say the same about the portable CD player of my childhood. That old thing skips all the time.

What I didn’t like about the Arafuna Portable CD Player

It has a few minor flaws

Finding something not to like about Arafuna was difficult as I had a great time using it. The only two issues I can identify are very minor and not problems, but worth mentioning anyway as they may be of consequence to someone with different listening habits than me.

Second, and related, is that although the Arafunas come with earbuds, they are not very good, and not very comfortable.

The first potential problem is that the built-in speaker, while passable, isn’t great. It’s fine if you want to get the gist of the music from your CD, but if you really want to hear all the nuances of your CD and enjoy it, you’ll want to use headphones or a good external speaker instead.

Second, and related, is that although the Arafunas come with earbuds, they are not very good, and not very comfortable. They only come with two ear tips, a large and a small one, and they don’t fit my ears well. I would recommend using your own earbuds or earphones with this CD player as a result.

Should you buy Arafuna Portable CD Player?

The Arafuna is a solid choice for those looking for a CD player that they can take on the go or enjoy at home. It’s compact enough to fit in a purse or briefcase, and its 12-hour battery life ensures it can travel comfortably on the train or plane. The EQ reset is a really nice touch. The Arafuna meets all my criteria for a good CD player, and Micro SD support and EQ are two big things. I felt a deep sense of nostalgia using the Arafuna, as it has many similarities to the CD player I used a lot as a child, but it has been updated enough in its features and design that it was a much better experience than using 20. A year old Sony CD player.

The Arafuna is not suitable for anyone looking for a CD player to listen to loudly without an external speaker to connect. A built-in speaker won’t suffice, and you’re better off getting a stereo with a CD player if that’s the case.