On the forum at headwize.com, Todd from Headroom has announced that they are working on an audiophile portable CD player. Over the years, sound quality from portable CD has generally gotten worse because the manufacturers focus on two features: lengthening battery life (i.e. lowering power consumption) and improving anti-skip. Both of these are detrimental to sound quality. In all fairness, though, many people will compare battery life and anti-skip when choosing a portable CD, so manufacturers are just following the market and competing with each other. To improve the sound from your portable CD, you can use line out (not the headphone output) and a separate headphone amplifier. Headroom sells portable amplifiers. Also some portable players have digital out but I don’t know if anybody makes a high quality portable DAC.
