God, what a beautiful little machine this is. I'll not get into hardware specifics yet - that is to come. But what I can say about this beaut is that it is small, compact and well made. It accepts optical signals only and spits out from a 3,5mm stereo mini.

If you are familiar with the iBasso D4, the cio mb should whet your appetite. It uses the very same Wolfson WM8740 DAC decoder. It sounds good, gets decent battery life, and can be packed up anywhere. What I love is that it uses optical and since I use a Mac, I don't need to dirty my USB output or lower my CPU output - this thing just runs straight from my headphone port. It will run from any optical-sporting machine or outboard audio interface.

Theoretically, its 5V DC could be powered by a high-powered USB port if you have the right adapter. For this reason, MST might think about changing from a coaxial plug to a mini-USB just for ease of use and compatibility with computer and mains USB ports.

Yes, it performs very well, yes it sounds good, and yes, I cannot wait to finish my forthcoming review.

Review forthcoming, smile here already.

compared to the tiny iBasso T3:

a mess of cables, Ortofon eQ7, and the iBasso T3

next to its loving progenitor, the FiQuest and the DT880 600Ω

cute little bum: