Thursday, June 4, 2026
Home Review Atoll CD100 Evolution CD player – More than an evolution

Review Atoll CD100 Evolution CD player – More than an evolution

Door
Geoffrey
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1

Pros

  • Balanced reproduction
  • Great as a CD transport
  • Sturdy build
  • Price

Cons

  • Remote control

Price: € 1300

Build quality
Usability
Sound
Price
Review
Specs

Who is the Atoll CD100 Evolution for?

Contents

Who still buys a CD player over €1000? That is the question. Well, for the price of an Atoll CD100 Evolution, you’re not going to be able to build an equivalent streaming set-up. Even if you tweak your Raspberry Pi to infinity. The Atoll CD100 Evolution is a delightful all-rounder that will easily fit into your set-up. And one you will use day in and day out. That is, if you still have CD’s lying around. In time you can invest in a separate d/a converter, and use the Atoll CD100 Evolution as a CD transport. We tested this with a Sonnet Morpheus dac and the performance went up even more. But you won’t be in a hurry to upgrade because everything sounds perfectly balanced.

Conclusion

We had a blast these past few weeks with Atoll CD100 Evolution. It may be the most affordable cd-player Atoll makes, it's also the most fun. This is not a neutral player but one that finds the perfect balance between involvement and enjoyment. Between emotion and detail. It removes the digital out of digital and adds some much needed warmth and feeling to the music. The Atoll CD100 Evolution reminds of those great cd-player from the past. Not perfect but thorougly enjoyable and musical. Easy to listen to for hours on end. The icing on the cake is that the Atoll CD100 Evolution is also a great transport. Recommended.
Type test
Single Test
Inputs
  • None
Outputs
  • Analog RCA
  • Digital Coaxial
  • Digital Optical
Product type
CD-player
Max samplingrate
44.1 kHz
Max bit depth
16 bit
Weight
6 Kg
Dimensions
  • Width: 44 cm
  • Depth: 28 cm
  • Height: 9,5 cm
Production country
Frankrijk

1 COMMENT

  1. Hello Geoffrey, thank you for the review.

    It’s unfortunate that Jaap hasn’t measured this CD player.

    The ones that have been measured have showed poor technical prowess in the design department at atoll.

    I have many Atoll pieces at home, but have personally taken a pause on buying any of their Evo products.

    You can have great sound and well measuring products (not mutually exclusive), Atoll needs to step up in this department.

    Brian

Alpha Audio - Haarlem - Netherlands