If you knew that it takes thirty Irish to unscrew a light bulb—one to hold it, 29 to drink until the room spins—you should have expected spin when reading that CD transports need just a few lightweight parts to fit into a jewel-case sized slice o' metal. Some do get away with it. Not so the robust DST. This bird is all stuffed festivity not some dry leftover turkey sliver. It also doesn't run off USB's 5V but a proper linear power supply.

The elegant small remote takes a standard coin battery.

Cynics expecting heavy case work with mostly hot air inside already moved to sparser pastures. Métronome don't play silly buggers.

Just so, their capacitive fascia controls number just five to keep things tidy not loaded for bear. A long press on 'eject' doubles as standby. The remote's 'menu' button accesses the customization choices shown next. It's all super intuitive but the included manual still explains how to navigate the menu for those not feeling the intuition. There are five brightness modes, the back-lit command icons can be on/off, the display can auto dim at different speeds and show elapsed/remaining track/total times. We can repeat a track or the whole disc. What more could one want from a physical disc spinner? Upsampling to 384kHz or DSD256 with all the intermediate steps? We already squared that away if we do I²S. Otherwise it's 192 or 64 over coax or XLR. Check, mate!

With Luxsin X9 DAC/pre and DMAX P61 active monitors.

Given the very basic job description of this machine, I had instant proof of office life. Old-school charms. That includes compatibility with CD-R for anachrophiles who remember assembling their own 80-min. hard playlists before cloud streaming was a thing. Include me amongst that dying breed. I still have some I burnt for prior transport reviews by Ancient, C.E.C., Denafrips and Jay's. Supposedly tape cassettes are making a minor comeback. Perhaps some dinosaur youngsters will rediscover CD-R as long as blanks are traded? It reads querulously quaint when this generation shares Spotify or Qobuz playlists. Cue The Last of Us. Everyone else believes in the undying stability of the Internet. Should it glitch, temporarily or for longer, physical media continue to play. Now the last laugh is on the dinosaurs. What if a silvery meal gets stuck in our throats because the slot drive refuses to spit it back out? Whilst Stream Unlimited enjoy an excellent rep for their mechanics, I do wonder about that. With the sled mech concealed beneath a double-decker PCB unlike a free-for-all top loader, the average user won't be able to get at it. For hifi worriers not warriors, that might be checkmate? That covers my physical inspection other than the typical Métronome build of a very thick painted bent steel cover that doesn't ring; and expert finishing that looks the prime placement. This is a brick not plasticky bric-a-brac.