Thanks for this post, it really answers some questions I had gnawing in the back of my head.
I'm thinking about getting serious about portable audio and trying to identify and weigh the pros and cons of a high quality dedicated player vs smartphone+dac/amp solution. I had been thinking that convenience and UI is a huge plus for the smartphone solution, but not sure to what extent since I have absolutely no experience with DAPs.
I'd be very grateful if more people can post their opinions on the subject. I'm looking at DAPs in the +/- $1000 price range, and amp/dacs all the way from E17 to the Chord Hugo, to pair with a pair of quality CIEMs.
I don't want to derail the conversation, but you do ask a good question.
If you want a DAP with a useful interface and software in the kilobuck range, today, you're probably stuck with (sigh) Astell&Kern and their nonexistent customer support.
At least the new A+K's support M3U playlist files, so you can take the ones from your computer without too much pain with third party software, like Dapper and possibly Foobar plugins. The new A+K ones. Not their old black-body models. Those were junk in the software department.
Or wait for this new Pioneer/Onkyo thing. It's seriously promising. And I definitely see it as selling in the kilobuck range. However, we simply have no idea at this point in time what the final quality of their software will be on the computer-end of the system, or if it will support Mac and Windows.
There's also the Sony offerings like the NW-ZX2, but from what I heard Sony is overpriced compared to their sound quality, even compared to A+K, and if you want to sync stuff with minimal suffering from a Mac, you're SOL without adding third party software (which may or may not exist or be possible to use
EDIT: Dapper just added support for the NW-ZX2! Wow that one guy is productive- ahem... Sony, iRiver, and all you other manufacturers- you should be ashamed of yourselves that you won't include sync software that is apparently that easy to make, and we should really be thankful that Map Pin is only charging $20 for his sync software instead of gouging us as is the pattern in HiFi), of course I'm sure that resorting to basic file transfer could work. I haven't been able to get any information whatsoever if the Sony's support the universal M3U playlist files. I don't have any ability to test the Sony Media Go software for Windows.
There's also the Calyx M, which also is praised for its interface and sound but again,you're stuck, with basic file transfer, and you'll have to make your playlists all over again on the device. Again, no luck with determining if Calyx supports M3U.
The Cowon Plenue One does NOT support externally made playlists. Pathetic.
For usability, Fiio, Cayin, iBasso, HiFiMan- these all have crippling design faults with their interfaces. Some may be able to deal with the inconvenience, but if you're the sort of person willing to put up with that stuff, you might be the sort of person who would consider a stack with an extended battery, a small Android tablet with SD card (a smartphone is -not- a good option as the cellular communication circuity, especially the GSM band, adds tons of noise to the system), and a DAC/Amp with a small nest of cables and rubber bands as a viable option.
