That was an excellently written review thanks!

Well said indeed!
 
And yes, I find it to pair very nicely with Grados.
 
I wonder about the noise floor wtih your SE535s though - I found it quite noticeable on my Shure SE425s, and distractingly noticeable on my Heir 4.Ais.  This 'black' background you speak of seems to be a little hit or miss with these players - some claim invisible noise floor, others not.  I ended up pairing mine with a portable amp just to clip off some of that hiss.
 
Very thorough review!  Gave me something to do at work today

Thanks Gignac.  I might have to update the review again once I've revisited my tagging again as well.  I just redid the whole library (FLAC only) and I'm already down to about two and a half minutes loading now.  Hopefully cleaning the tags might help even more (fingers crossed). 

I liked your review. I have had my player since the early summer myself. I also have a problem with the volume level, it is very annoying. I usually just power down the player and the volume is loud again when I power it back on. Another annoyance is how the player does not remember the last track it was playing when shut off. Of course it remembers where the volume was set, but that's it. It would be nice if they rectified some of these with a working firmware update.

Agree - there are a lot of things that I' love them to fix - but I have to admit that after reverting back to the old firmware - well let's just say I rarely use my iPhone any more (mostly just the car).  The Studio remains my favourite DAP, and I don't mind it's little UI flaws so much any more.
 
I just wonder how amazing this little thing could be - if they:
 - added more onboard flash memory
 - fixed the UI ecentricities
 
Anyway - thanks for the comments on the review.  BTW - my loading time is now around 1m 7 seconds (approx 2100 tracks - all flac)

What a crock. You have to be a nerdy scientist to use this thing. Why should I need to bugger around with id3 tags to avoid 10 minute load times? $400????!!! What a crappy brick.

@dcfac73 - your opinion - I disagree. Despite its flaws - I still use mine every day, and it's one of the best players I have. I currently have approx 2200 tracks on it. Boot up time is approx 75 seconds. It's tiny, battery lasts well over a day of constant playing (20 hours +), and it can drive a DT880 or HD600 without having to carry a stack. Current firmware I'm using scrolls easily and player never freezes. My tags are all clean anyway - so I don't have any issues. If you really want to put your own opinion across - why don't you take the time and write your own review?

I'm actually looking to replace my iPod Nano (finally breaking down on me) and since I started getting into the audiophile world a few months ago, I figured I could try giving non-Apple products a shot.
 
With that said, I feel similar to dcfac73.  I personally am looking for something very user friendly while providing great SQ--these are still neck-and-neck desires.  Therefore, for people in my situation where it's not completely about SQ (yet), what I get for the price sounds like it's very unsatisfying.  Perhaps in the future, when i'm looking for an extra toy to play with rather than a replacement, this could be one of them...and hopefully by then, all the buggies you mentioned will be gone. (^____^)
 
But I mean nothing bad towards you or your review with my comment here.  I personally enjoyed your review--mentioning all the bugs one needs to be prepared to come across rather than over-glorifying the product and consequently overshadowing the imperfections.  This is what I like about reviews.