Impressions? You should go visit an audiologist to get impressions! ;)

...Nor does it need to be synonymous with your personal vendetta against the AK240, for that matter.   Anally,     Lorias

The DAC driver is here. http://www.iriverinc.com/lounge/loungeView.asp?sno=1093 You need to switch the AK240 to MTP mode if you want to copy, move, rename or delete files/folders because in DAC mode it can only be used as a USB DAC. Sometimes, it may be necessary to unplug/re-plug the USB cable...

A more open soundstage.

  Los Angeles, AES 2014 (Day 2) convention paper 9174 —"The Audibility of Typical Digital Audio Filters in a High-Fidelity Playback System".   This paper describes listening tests investigating the audibility of various filters applied in high-resolution wideband digital playback systems...

   

  Can it play native DSD, though?

I paid 2499 EURO for it. That is still way more than $3k, and I accept it because I have listened to an incredible LED TV and a used car, but neither one of those sounded better than my AK240, so...

1. No, it won't be for free, but I recharge it only a few times per week on average so I am not too worried 2. No, it is actually more than worth the price IMO 3. Absolutely yes 4. Don't care

Mine are from AudioNova, one of Europe's leading hearing aid providers and official distributor of Variphone hearing protection. (Variphone is an official distributor of Westone).   The price I paid for them was 1175 €. The first thing I noticed with them is the impeccable musical clarity...

Inappropriate or not inappropriate, I am grateful to those who have commented on differences between AK240 and Hugo as they have helped me decide between the two units, and I haven't regretted my decision.   AK240 should be compared with anything that can sound great, and if it's DAP & DAC...

If you can't hear the difference then there is no point in buying 24-bit music or 24-bit capable audio gear. Personally, I, can hear it very clearly on good recordings, i.e. 24-bit in comparison to 24-bit that has been dithered down to 16-bit in iZotope RX 4 Advanced, but HDTracks and similar...

Quote: It is still slow I think, but I don't see that as a real problem anyway because I can only listen to so many albums per day, and 256GB is more than sufficient for me to not easily get bored with having only a limited choice of music to play each time when I am away from home.

I have tested it with foobar2000 using "UPnP/DLNA Renderer, Media Server, Control Point" component (foo_upnp) on my laptop. It works, and I am able to stream my files from my foobar2000 playlists and music library via Wi-Fi, but the playback isn't gapless, and native DSD playback is not...

Words aren't needed to figure out the ES60 is simply the best.