DAP with the best SQ?

There really is no one answer to your question.

However, I expect it will stir up arguments over which one is better in that price range. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by rt310 


Could you provide a list of DAPs that are in the price range? It would be greatly appreciated.

That would be a big list - anything except the top tier "audiophile" ones probably - DX100, AK100, HM801, Tera Player and C4.  Of course if you have your heart set on spending at least $400 because price = performance you'll have a far smaller list

What is quality sound to you?  Do you value vocals, bass, guitars, instrument separation... more?  Are you hoping to drive very sensitive IEMs or full sized headphones?  There is no one size fits all "best sounding" DAP, you need to give more info

I'll go ahead and say Clip+... :)

It depends on how you listen to your music. If you do a blind test to determine the best dap for your music instead of audio, you will very likely prefer the $100 dap to the $500 dap or even the $800 dap. But if you are an audiophile and know it is an iPod, it won't sound any good no matter what because you are looking for the perfect mechanical audio not necessarily the most enjoyable music.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rt310 


I value vocals and instrument separation the most, as most of my music consists of Asian pop/classical. I'll be using my GR07s with them.

Perhaps you should have a read about the Colorfly C3 which is praised for it's instrument separation and several users with the GR07?  I have never heard the GR07 or any Asian pop, but I do have a C3 and can vouch for it's usability. 

My only hesitations would be:

- The C3 doesn't do gapless, so there will be slight pauses in the middle of transitions and this may be accompanied by quiet click/pop noises (I hear them, but cannot reproduce them on demand - seems to be completely random)

- If you leave it paused it will not auto power off and the battery will drain seemingly quicker than when playing music.

- It will not remember what you were playing when you next turn it on. 

- A touch more bass would be nice, but that could be my choice of headphones.  It does have a couple of EQ settings which help.

But purely from a SQ perspective the C3 sounds so good I re-ripped 150+ albums into single FLAC files (with cues to skip between tracks) to avoid the gaps despite the other flaws.  You'd have plenty of money left to spend on music too

Quote:

Originally Posted by rt310 


All I want is the best out of my music

What daps do you have now? Keep in mind the sound comes down to the synergy from the combined gears (dap, iem's, and etc)