Audiophiles have long looked down on digital music because the sound quality was significantly inferior to golden-eared listeners with discerning tastes. Develop lossless file formats (eg orbit) and cheap multi-GB storage made high-resolution portable music a reality.
At this point, there are only two major players in the high-end portable music space: Astell & Kern and Sony (where the Walkman brand still exists). We’ve used previous versions of each brand, but not the current models. Estelle and Cairn players Starting at $1000, they are only for true enthusiasts.
If you’re the type who has hard drives full of uncompressed music audio files — and you can hear the difference between that and relatively lower-res MP3 and AAC files — then, by all means, pair one of these players with the wired headphones of your choice.
Almost all streaming music services now offer high-bitrate or lossless options; That’s pretty much all the big players, from Tidal and Qobuz to Amazon and Apple. (Spotify Hi-Fi(Oddly enough, still a no-show.)
If you like what you hear, consider upgrading to a Decent headphone DAC (This is a “digital to analog converter”) such as Sonic dragonfly or Wi-Fi Audio Go And a serious pair of wired headphones. Then, you’ll have a solid, on-the-go audiophile option, without the need for a standalone music player.
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