Mp3 player with the BEST sound quality.

Various chinese bricks are often considered to have the best SQ, but if you don't want to carry dap+amp with you, i guess you wouldn't want to carry HiFiMan with you as well. Also, there are professional audio recorders with the great SQ (e.g. Sony D50), but these are also huge and heavy and battery life is relatively low (except for PCM-D50).

And from the "regular" players afaik the best are Kenwood HDD players (HD60GD9 is their last model), Sony flash-based players with an "S-Class amp" (X1000 and A840 series) and legacy sony hdd-based players (NW-HD1, HD3 and HD5).

HD60GD9 is hard to find and the price is something like $0.5k for an used one. X1061 (32GB) is going for $350 on amazon, and you can purchase A847 (64GB) from japan for about $300+shipping. Or you can go with lower capacities, then it would be X1051 (16GB) or A846 (32GB).

Also i believe that good enough players (although these are far from the "best") are cheaper sony flash-based models (Sxxx and Axxx except for A84x), some cowon models (HDD-based X3/X5/M3, flash-based D2/S9), flash-based kenwood models (F504/F508/F516), hdd-based toshiba gigabeats (F20/F40, X30/X60, S30/S60) and all zunes. Also there are some chinese players in a regular form factor, like s:flo2 or something.

Nationite s:flo2 aka Telecast T51 - Do your research and understand the downfalls of the UI, battery life and possible operating system problems.

HiFiMan HM-602 - You might consider this too bricky and too expensive but I'll list it none the less.

Cowon J3 - A step down from the s:flo2, but a brilliant mass consumer orientated DAP. Amazing battery life, UI, etc. Has great EQ settings that makes the sound really shine.

How much capacity do you want? How modern do you want your player to be? As penartur writes, the Kenwood HDD DAP:s sound very good. I do not know if they work with Mac:s, though...

Another alternative is the JVC/Victor Alneo series. They are right up there with the Kenwood series when it comes to sound, and build quality is much better from Japanese DAP:s than Chinese. I own a JVC XA-HD500, a 6GB HDD (microdrive) MP3 player released in 2005. The EQ works very well and it sounds pretty amazing. These are pretty difficult to find outside of Japan. I saw that there is one of these for sale here on Head-fi (from the UK).

If you do not mind small capacity and 5 year old design, the XA-HD500 is a safe bet for excellent sound quality. The earlier versions of the Kenwood HDD players sound great as well. I own the HD20GA7 (20GB HDD), and while it supposedly does not sound as good as the HD60GD9 (60GB HDD), it trumps my Cowon S9. However, the Cowon S9 and J3 are very good players in their own rights.

However, the big question is whether the JVC and Kenwoods work on Mac. The JVC is MTP based and the Kenwood, while being MSC based, uses the software Kenwood Media Application to transfer music. This is installed on the HDD and the first time you connect it to your computer, it will ask if you want to install it. Honestly, the software is a p.i.t.a., but I have learned to accept it.

EDIT: Here is an old comparison between the JVC XA-HD500, Kenwood HD20GA7 and Kenwood HD10GB7

I would say the S:Flo2 on 2.3 firmware is the best-sounding PMP I've owned personally (on my 4th), and I've yet to do the portable-amp thing so I'm talking about straight out of the HO. It's fairly inexpensive too. That said, there's a few compromises you have to make, as Hero Kid pointed out. Would love to hear the Hifiman players myself but can't comment. The Cowon J3 is getting a few nods round here too, particularly if you're fond of EQ'ing.

If you're going from an iPod Classic though, you'll probably be disappointed with the onboard capacity of most of these. I have a few 16GB microSD cards that are divided roughly by genre, which isn't ideal but at least means I can carry all my music about. I think all of the above players have a microSD slots, if you're that way inclined.

I wouldn't go for the a845 because it doesn't get positive reviews at all (see shigzeo's review). Not to mention it hisses quite a lot from what i've read, which is quite disturbing. If you like the cowon sound you could always go for a j3. I personally don't like the sound myself and would for an sflo2 (but you'll have to wait till november to get one or see the fs forums) or a hippo gumstick. Neither of these have great battery life averaging at 10, but that's the compromise of good sound. Also to note the UI isn't going to be a slick and intuitive as the Ipod's. It seems like the J3 would be more suited for you thought.

Hmm both the s:flo2/T51 and the J3 encounter problems on OSX so that could be a problem.

Quote:

Originally Posted by yliu 

The Sony A84x series seems to be very new, and much cheaper than the X1000 series, so maybe I'll give them a try when they are more available where I live.

And how do I know if a sony player has the "S-Class" amps??

X1000 and A840 do have S-Class amps, other sony players of recent years do not.

Japanese (NW-) models are working just as the mass storage drive (like your usb thumb drive); and european (NWZ-) models are working as MTP devices and i believe there are some third-party applications to add MTP support to MacOS.

mac just seems to just bind you to the ipods......

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inks 

mac just seems to just bind you to the ipods......

Only if OP will refuse from any player that can be used without itunes, with just file manager.