[karmypolitics]

The Nokia 520 and 820 both have expandable storage, and Win8 mobile.
 
I listened to the 820 recently...and I liked it a lot. I honestly felt that the sound was more detailed and crisp than what I got from my 5g ipod touch. I felt like I could get more of the music's texture. Dolby headphone enhancement wasn't any good though. It would make portions of songs clip.
 
Unfortunately, no gapless
 
Which is very noticable, actually.
 
At the very least, these phones could give the Cowon's a run for the money. 
 
And of course they can do a host of other things, like email, web surf, GPS navigation, and so on.
 
One annoyance I found is that the music management software is TERRIBLE. I transferred an album onto it and the album would be divided into two because the software somehow misread the information on the AAC files. 

 

[jesussongs]

I used to listen on my N95 8GB by using se535. sounds good but not as well as on AMP.

 

[ElliotCWSC]

I use my Nokia Lumia 800 as my main player nowadays when my ancient brick of an MP3 player died a year back. While I didn't notice a loss of sound quality battery life is a pain as that's a major benefit of a dedicated MP3 player - you don't have to sacrifice play time due to other features like you do with a phone.
 
Basically what I think I'm saying is that this would be a good route to go if you want an all in one device and don't want an Apple or Android device. The only advice I'd offer is don't use any really demanding earphones, like top end Shures for example. as while they will work the phone won't output enough to drive them to their full ability.
 
I'd have to disagree with you about the software as I've never had a problem with it. Then again I manually tag my music and don't rely on iTunes to do it for me...

 

[dweaver]

I use my Nokia 920 every day and like it quite a bit.

 

[stuartfang]

I've been a Nokia user for a long time since my first 8600 luna. The best sound quality I got from a Nokia phone was the Nokia X6-00. It had a Toshiba DAC, decent amp, and a lot of storage. It was the most neutral sound I heard from a phone, unlike colored Android smartphones sound.
 
I use a Lumia 920 now, and it is quite similar to the X6, but more similar to the X7 and the N8, which I don't know particularly why. There always seems to be like a veil covering the sound, and has a darker sound to it, not warm though, just dark. Emphasis in lower-mids. I can't even use Dolby sound effect without making everything sound like 96kbps in audio settings but maybe that's just me. Does anybody have any similar experiences with me??

 

[Foxjam]

I have a Lumia 900 and am anxious to see what the announcement in October will be. I'm due for an upgrade soon. I just wish that you could use an external DAC like on some Android and iPhones or just a line out adapter. I think the Lumia 900 sounds ok but when I had my iPhone 4 being able to use a line out adapter was an awesome feature to have.

 

[The_X]

Sorry to bump an older topic, but I've owned the Lumia 520 for 3 months now and the sound quality is excellent!  To my ears the sound is very organic with a low noise floor on my Shure SE530.  I was honestly shocked that this $80 phone sounded so good, when my expensive old HTC Evo 4G LTE was so terrible-sounding.  Nokia knows what it is doing.

 

[musicday]

Best Nokia as mp3 player for cheep is X1-01 even if only 16 GB micro SD support the sq is really good.

 

[Roboturner913]

I'm getting an E5 and read in a review that the music player is supposed to sound really good. Looking forward to trying that out.

 

[Sparky191]

I picked up a Lumia 520 at the weekend. Just getting to grips with it. My Samsung Ace 2 was becoming flaky and unreliable. 
 
But 3 cheers for a phone that has decent lock screen music controls for the music player and radio. 

 

[Spadge]

I listen to XBOX music and Pandora on my 920 sometimes. I just wish it could do digital audio out via USB.

 

[Foxjam]

I got the Lumia 1520 on release day. Haven't listened to it with any of my better headphones yet but with a poor pair at work I can tell that the heaphone amp is much more powerful than on my Lumia 900. So far loving the phone but really wish it could do audio out via USB so I could pair it with an external DAC/amp.

 

[Chrontius]

Actually, I've been using a Lumia 520 almost exclusively since my iPhone went on the blink.
 
My problem is the in-line remote and mic on essentially all of my headphones quit working, and I've become quite spoiled.
 
Anybody know of a good replacement cable for my Incase Sonics that uses the OMAP pinout?  For the Bowers & Wilkins P5?