Nice review!  Overall just a very meh player to me, too many unneeded features crammed into a small package...could've been better focused like the AK Jr or X3 and the like with an emphasis on better SQ too.  cheerios

Great review. From here on out I'm only considering wireless options, and Sony is a good driving force here, too bad pairing is slow but than again once paired it should be faster at each consecutive pairing right? Does it have NFC?

excellent and thorough review, cheers

Thanks for the kind comments guys! @LajostheHun, yes the A25 does support NFC, you can see the tag on the back of the player. Only initial pairing was slow, consecutive connection was snappy and it's great to be able to decide whether to automatically connect to the last device or not. Sony's own Bluetooth headphones/earphones support LDAC, which is a form of lossless wireless audio said to be superior to APT-X. I didn't have a wireless Sony headphone on hand, so I can't confirm this, but it's something to consider if you're in the market for a solid portable/wireless setup. 

Very nice and comprehensive review!