I was pretty impressed with the sq that came out of this dap. I didn't play with the controls so can't comment on the interface and ease of use. It looks and feels better in person than it does in pics. I asked about alac as well but didn't get the impression it was going to happen any time soon but who knows. A little more than half my music (about 500 gb) is in alac. I'm not in the market for this at the moment but I would not let the lack of alac support stop me. I have another 300 gb of flac available.