"budget..." lol really? It costs $399USD currently, talks of it being $260 but have yet to be proved, and apparently $399AUD. Hardly budget. Middle of the field I would say.
I sincerely doubt there will be any compromises, at least any that are audible. Volume matched, same headphones used, same DSPs applied and blind tested I guarantee no one will be able to tell which DAP is playing. It's like asking me to compare the C2 and i9+ against one another, they sound exactly the same. I even doubt a P or M user would correctly identify (during certain passages in a song) between them and a i9 or M2 lmao.
What is true is that the P or M may hiss less than a i9 or c2, helpful under certain conditions (being headphone dependent and genre, classical vs metal or pop etc), but really... we're splitting hairs.
It's like the whole Hi Res/Flac vs 320kbps argument all over again. ABX testing proves that users cannot ascertain a difference between those files, anyone who says they can is either misguided (between recording sources), wrong, suffering placebo and never able to prove they can (under abx conditions) or on video etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrfX-g8auc8
Whats sad is that P and M owners who shelled a fortune are essentially getting ripped off by the introductuion of this Plenue D model at this price point, it will virtually sound the same and has 10x the battery life, is smaller also. It may lack some other features (line out, more lyric support), but I bet many P and M owners will go on the defense about how much better their model is over the D just to make themselves feel better and less ripped off. Naughty Cowon if u ask me.
(by the way not attacking you specifically u understand), I am a long term Cowon and this is just my 2 cents. Happy to be proven wrong in the future...