Note: I have decided on a player, and am now looking for advice on headphones instead. If you want to help me out, click here. Otherwise, there is still good info in this thread, so feel free to check it out.
 
I have just recently gotten into high quality music. I used to listen to 20 kbps MP3s and thought they were just fine until I started listening to 320k, and now I've just fallen for FLACs, and I want a good player to do them justice.

My first player was a Sansa Fuze (no rockbox), and that was great up until it stopped charging properly. I then upgraded to a Cowon D2 and loved the sound, but the interface was unbearable, so I moved to an X9. I loved that as well and the interface was much better than the D2's. Unfortunately, I recently left that on a plane in India somewhere. I'm currently using my smartphone as my main player, but I just don't have the space for FLACs when I'm using it as both a phone and a gaming platform.

Clearly I need another upgrade. I've narrowed my selection down to 4 players, though I'm quite open to suggestions.

-Cowon J3
-Colorfly C3
-Cowon iAudio 9+
-Sansa Fuze (w/ rockbox)

The absolute most important thing to me is sound authenticity. I want relatively equal bass, mids, and highs as standard, and a powerful EQ to tailor each song to my liking, with minimal distortion for maximum freedom. For reference, I mostly listen to Synthpop, Chiptune, Europop, and Classic Rock

After that, the UI and experience are most important. I want to easily be able to browse my files by track name, artist, and album, and I want easy access to basic settings such as EQ and shuffle/repeat from the Now Playing screen. I don't mind a learning curve, as long as it's actually a curve, and not just some D2 or iAudio 10 ridiculousness.

Finally, at least 32GB of storage (counting SD) is mandatory for any other player you might want to suggest. FLACs are enormous, and I have a lot of music. 64GB is far preferable, though I don't need anything ridiculous like 160GB.

Other nice things:
-Solid build quality
-Manipulate music from a pocket (this one's actually quite important)
-Album art
-Good battery life
-Gapless support
-Control playback speed w/ pitch correction
-ReplayGain support

Stuff I don't care about:
-Video
-Picture viewer
-Radio
-Recording
-Games
-Internet
-Apps such as calculator, notepad, etc.
-Basically anything else that isn't music-related

More info:
-My phones are a pair of Sony MDR-V6s. 
-I don't use an amp and don't plan to. 
-My budget is $250 (Used is fine).

If there's any more information that would help, please don't hesitate to ask; I'll gladly provide it if I can. Thanks!   

If you have tried Rockbox and are OK with it as UI, add iBasso DX50 to your list. Rockbox was recently ported to it.

I haven't used Rockbox myself, but I'm willing to try it out. The full parametric equalizer is a little intimidating though. I'm used to JetEffect. Does it take too long to learn?

Does what take long to learn? Rockbox? PEQ?

The EQ. I've seen pictures of the UI, it looks perfectly usable, if a bit bland.

steel ninja said:

The EQ. I've seen pictures of the UI, it looks perfectly usable, if a bit bland.

Click to expand...

It is very easy to use, you just slide bands up and down? 

There are guides and explanations on the web about parametric EQ. Once you understand it, it gives you much better manipulation of frequency response. But it is conceptually more difficult.

If you happen to have an Android phone, get Neutron music player. It has PEQ you could experiment with.

BTW: I'm not sure how good the gapless support is for DX50 rockbox (I don't use it). Research and ask questions here: http://www.head-fi.org/t/709855/rockbox-for-ibasso-dx50-cwm-recovery-latest-update-2014-06-30

lin0003 said:

It is very easy to use, you just slide bands up and down? :rolleyes:

Click to expand...

Sorry, by UI I meant the menus. That wasn't particularly clear.

cel4145 thank you, that is extremely helpful, and I will check out Neutron.

----

Alternately, could I just Rockbox something cheap like a Clip+ or Clip Zip and use the rest of the money to upgrade my cans? I've heard that better headphones make a bigger difference better DAPs...

steel ninja said:

Sorry, by UI I meant the menus. That wasn't particularly clear.

Click to expand...

You get used to it after a bit of using it, it is actually really easy to navigate through. 

steel ninja said:

Alternately, could I just Rockbox something cheap like a Clip+ or Clip Zip and use the rest of the money to upgrade my cans? I've heard that better headphones make a bigger difference better DAPs...

Click to expand...

I think my Clip+ and Clip Zip have better SQ than my Cowon D2 did, although the Cowon had a bit more power. iBasso DX50 beats them both, on both counts. But it is a good bit more.

If you want a nice SQ upgrade, get the Clip+ or Zip (I like the Zip's bigger screen--sound is identical to me). Then get the Soundmagic HP150 with the rest of your budget. Imagine the V6 with the bass extended all the way down to 20hz, but rising so slightly over neutral as it goes instead of rolling off. Then imagine better bass, mid, and treble SQ/resolution (e.g. V6 treble is a little grainy in comparison, IMO). Better imaging and soundstage. Better comfort. Better cable setup (short cord for portable use with extension). In other words, same class of headphone in the more/closer to neutral sound signature headphones, but the $200 version

After installing Rockbox on my iPod Classic ($250), the sound quality shot up beyond what I thought the device was capable of.
 
...but I was astounded to find that the Sansa Clip+ apparently sounds better, yet costs almost nothing!
 
Upgrading your headphones is certainly a more worthy endeavor.

Well, Neutron's interface is garbage, but I can tell that PEQ is a powerful thing. I still suck at it since I've only used it for ~15 minutes, but I'm sure with time my ability will improve. Can you save EQ presets with Rockbox? Is it possible to assign each song a preset so you don't have to do it manually every time?

steel ninja said:

Can you save EQ presets with Rockbox? Is it possible to assign each song a preset so you don't have to do it manually every time?

Click to expand...

 
Yes, just go to Settings, Sound Settings, Equalizer, Save EQ Preset.
 
You can also import existing EQ presets to the .rockbox\eqs folder. (If it doesn't exist, just create it and transfer the files there.)
 
There is probably a way to make it remember presets for any song automatically, but I don't know how. It would likely involve some sort of CFG script.

Yeah. As much as I find PEQ useful, I rarely use Neutron because of that interface (I stick with Poweramp). But glad you could experiment and see how it works.

Have you thought about the Fiio X3 or X5?  The X3 can be had for the low price of $200 CAN at headphonebar.com, and the X5 for $359 at the same place.  The X3 allows bass and treble adjustments up to +/- 10db, and the X5 has a parametric EQ.  I haven't heard the X5, but it's said that it's open and airy, where the X3 is a little darker and laid back.  Both are great players though from reviews, and I have the X3 and can verify that it's a smooth player.  File browsing is easy, and it's expandable with a microSD card.  I think the X5 has two microSD slots.  So you can get a card you can afford, and put it in the player for whatever amount of room you need.  I love listening to my FLAC files on the X3, it meshes well with my Atrio MG7 IEM's and my JVC SZ-1000 cans.