tl;dr The SR35 is a perfectly paired down device that is delightfully pocketable and transportable. There are some hiccups, it’s not perfect, but it could be perfect for you! This is a narrative review instead of an analytical review. Come with me on my journey. My first DAP was the Questyle QP2R. I was unhappy with how lifeless it sounded with whichever earphones I had then. I then moved to the Astell & Kern SP1000M. I fell in love with the SP1000M. The UI was what I wanted. It sounded so lively and FUN! I enjoyed it so much that I invested in a...

EDIT: Bumped up my rating from 3.5 to 4 because of a software update to make the M17 a proper Roon endpoint. You can now listen to Roon with the full guts of the device. There is a NOTICEABLE sound improvement. Good riddance to the Fiio player. Overall, the device is still unjustifiably big unless you are going to be using it specifically for full-sized headphones and the sound quality isn’t quite on par with summit-fi players, but this software update means I can stop checking eBay for an SP3000 for a bit longer. AirPlay is still unusable. 🥲 Gear...