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Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Ive tried most of em, if not all.. The best ? The iBasso DX90 is very involving and full of character. The BEST Ive encountered is the Astell and Kern AK100 ii and its quite simply stunning.
Although it can be an oxymoron to place "mp3" and "audiophile" in the same sentence, but to be honest my ears only goes as good as 320kbps mp3 files as I can't differentiate them to loseless files.
But I am very very fussy about the source quality because I have an acquired taste was sound signature which is: flat, cold, and analytical with detailed sparkling highs. I currently have an Etymotic ER4p/s earphone and would like to pair it with something higher quality than my current Sansa Clip Zip and iPod video.
I was previously torn deciding whether to get the DX90 or Fiio x5ii because these 2 players are widely available online in the UK without having to importing them. Too bad I can't try them out before buying so I really have to take my chances on opinions and reviews.
I also looked into the Astell and Kern series, but they cost as much as my kidneys and liver which sucks because every review i read was so positive.
Apart from the DX90, do you recommend any other audiophile portable player that cost less than £300?
I also thought the same that my sansa clip zip (it shares the same DAC with the Clip+) was adequate as it provides a detailed and a relatively flat EQ. But it was only until I recently tried my friend's Colorfly C3 £79.99 player, my mind was blown away. I realized that you may not know what you have missed until you try something new. I used to own a SE420 and I thought it was good, until I tried the Etymotics. But it's all a matter of personal taste too, I tried sharing my new found glory flat-sounding earphones to my friends and they still prefer something close to Beats earphone (urgh).
I think buying an audiophile-grade portable player as a one-off investment is ok, as long as it isn't ridiculously expensive, you love it, and you don't plan on upgrading it for a long time. But given the experience of GAS, I can see how being an audiophile can lead to addiction...
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
I might look into that colorfly c3. The only thing that I don't like about the clip is the small display and relatively awkward navigation. Something with a bigger screen would be nice.
A lot of leading audiophile players are from small obscure Chinese companies (that's how Fiio started) and they have really weird sounding product names like... QLS, LOTTO, Cayin, iHiFi
X3 is my budget choice, from reviews and opinions it seems that the X3 sounds more or less identical to X5 despite being £100 cheaper
The sound quality and internal amp are superb though, I was using it with HD800's for a while and it powered them just fine...it even held it's own very respectably against the Sennheiser HDVA 800.
Shoot me a pm if you're interested (it's boxed and has been in the protective rubber case with a screen protector on from new) think I even have a spare battery for it somewhere too.
cheers,
Jim