Fosi Audio Merak CD Player Review: Perfection in a Small Package

Let me begin this review with a story. My love for audio began with a Marantz receiver, Technics turntable, Nakamichi tape deck, Infiniti speakers—and about 3,000 albums. When CDs arrived, I was hooked and eventually replaced my albums with a collection of 400 CDs—which I still own. Now, I mainly listen to Apple Music via my Mac Studio, Valortiva amp, and B&W 607 speakers on my desktop. I’ve now added the Fosi Audio Merak CD player into my setup. Was it worth it?

What Is It?

The Fosi Audio Merak CD player is a small desktop CD player that looks portable, but isn’t. Its footprint is only slightly larger than a CD. 

What’s Included?

• Fosi Audio Merak CD Player
• USB-C to USB-A cable
• Remote Control
• Manual

Tech Specs

• Chipset: SC6137D + CS43131 + TPA6120
• Max Sampling Rate: 16bit / 96kHz
• Input: USB-A (USB flash drives), CD
• 3.5mm headphone jack, Line, OPT
• CD formats: CDDA, CD-R / CD-RW (partially readable)
• Original pressed discs are recommended
• CD-R formats: FLAC / WAV / WMA / AAC / MP3
• IR remote control
• ESP anti-shock switch

Design and Features

Let me state up front: I have no nostalgic feelings for music on vinyl. None. Which is why I no longer own vinyl albums. I don’t miss the album’s pops and noise, let alone the constant fiddling with turntables. That said, I still own many CDs but haven’t played them in years—until now.

The Fosi Audio Merak is one of those CD players that either fits your needs or doesn’t. In my case, I needed a small CD player for my workspace that took up little room, but still worked with my existing setup. What I got was a CD player that fit those requirements and sounds great. 

Fosi Audio is a new(ish) manufacturer that makes affordable audio gear for anyone needing amps, preamps, headphone or Bluetooth amps, or DACs. However, this review is of their new Merak CD player that—as the cliché goes—punches above its weight in both price and quality.

Nerd note: The Fosi Audio Merak CD player is named after Merak, a prominent star in the constellation Ursa Major. Fosi Audio chose the name to symbolize a guiding reference point, positioning the Merak CD player as that “reference point” for audio clarity and sound staging in a listener’s setup. Now you know.

As I said, the Fosi Audio Merak CD player is only slightly larger than a CD. It’s comparable in size to a portable player, but that’s where the comparison ends. Because it’s designed for desktop use, the Merak has no battery and must be connected to a power source. 

If you insist on using the Fosi Audio Merak CD player in a car or other moving vehicle, Fosi includes an “ESP” anti-shock button to reduce vibrations that can affect disc reading and playback stability. Otherwise, it’s not necessary.

While I wouldn’t say the Fosi Audio Merak CD player is portable, you can easily move it from room to room with headphones/earphones—as long as they’re wired and you can plug it in. Again, no battery.

The Merak has a silver, sandblasted aluminum chassis with a hinged see-through plastic top for loading CDs. The top must be opened manually. The lid’s front edge has a small slot for easy opening. The CD loads into place and starts spinning as soon as the lid closes.

There’s a bit of a learning curve with some settings, such as output modes, the playback mode switch, and the multi-function power button. The manual explains it fairly well.

Output modes are headphones, speakers (Line/RCA), and optical.

I’m using the Line Out Mode for nearfield listening, connected to an amp and B&W 600 (passive) speakers on my desktop. Needless to say, it sounds great. 

Note that the Fosi Audio Merak CD player can also connect to powered speakers via RCA or optical. If using RCA cables, the Merak’s built-in digital audio converter (DAC) would be used instead of the speaker’s DAC.

I tested various wired headphone/earphones using the 3.5mm headphone jack. Wired is required, as there is no built-in Bluetooth. You could plug a dedicated Bluetooth transmitter into the headphone jack, but that kinda defeats the purpose of hi-res CD audio. When using headphones, you control the volume with an orange slider on the side of the Merak player. 

Then there’s ripping. Remember ripping? The Fosi Audio Merak CD playerwill record (rip) a CD as it plays. Keep in mind that it will only rip a complete CD by default. However, it rips songs separately, so you can save them—or not. Note that files don’t pick up any embedded song info, so you’ll need to name each song manually. Files are ripped in CD quality (16 bit/44,100 kHz), so file size is large. File ripping size is fixed and can’t be changed.

One nice feature of the Fosi Audio Merak CD player is that it supports gapless playback. Any classical or old Pink Floyd CDs with no breaks between songs will play as intended. You would think this feature would be standard, but some players don’t support it. Kudos to Fosi.

I listen to music all day while working on freelance children’s book design. My eclectic taste spans all genres, from ABBA to Brian Eno to 60s psychedelia to Russian choral music. After listening to many CDs, I’ve come away impressed by both the audio quality and how easily the Merak player fits into my routine. Its small size allows it to sit on top of my amp and take up less room than the amp itself.

The Fosi Audio Merak CD player’s included remote is more useful than I thought it would be. Since the CD player is within arm’s reach, I could just press the front buttons to play/pause, skip, and so on. But the Merak is lightweight, and pressing a button easily bumps the player. The remote makes any commands hands-off. 

Does the Fosi Audio Merak CD player sound better than songs I listen to with Apple Music? Not in my case. My Mac Studio setup lets me listen to Apple Music songs at CD-quality or better, so hearing my favorite songs on CD hasn’t made me say, “Oh wow!” What the Marak has done is kinda force me to hear an album from start to finish—something I haven’t done in a long while. I realized I’d missed rediscovering forgotten tracks, either because of the algorithm or because I would skip over them while streaming. I have Fosi to thank for that.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve been streaming music over the last few years and have a collection of CDs stored away, you owe it to yourself to relive those musical memories as they were meant to be heard. Who knows? Playing CDs on the Fosi Audio Merak CD player may help bring back fond memories of forgotten songs that helped shape your past.

The Fosi Merak CD Player retails for $139.99; it is available directly from the manufacturer, Amazon, or Best Buy.

Source: Manufacturer-supplied review sample

What I Like: What’s not to like? It’s affordable, small, easy to use, built extremely well, and sounds wonderful

What Needs Improvement: Nothing