It may not look like it, but it plays CDs

We're convinced that some people deliberately buy certain home entertainment equipment simply because it looks impossibly complicated. That way, they can pretend to be experts even if they have no idea how it works.

(Credit: Shanling)

This Shanling CD player falls squarely under that category. Even though it uses the latest drive and decoding chip from Sony, as described by Chip Chick, it doesn't need to look as if only an engineer could work it.

Then again, if you're spending $3,000 for a CD player, it should probably look like something only a studio professional would use. But it could be worse: You could be spending $150,000 for a quarter-ton turntable.