I have a RAID 6 array (16TB usable) that I store my media on, and I own over 5000 cds. This doesn't include digital only purchases I have made. Even with the AK240's 384GB, I will still have to carry around a ton of 128GB mSD cards to carry only a small portion of my library in high resolution. As such, I normally use EAC to rip, and then Lame to encode (-alt_standard even, alt_insane is too big) so that I can fit more of my music on my DAP of choice. When I am at home on the other hand... THAT is a different story.
I have recently acquired 1TB of storage via Google Drive(yes I need a lot more, but it isn't cheap
), which will serve as both an offsite backup and a place where I can access my music in hi res, given there doesn't yet exist a rebroadcasting device (like slingbox) where I can rebroadcast in hi-res and bandwidth isn't an issue, at least not until I am on Google Fiber (next month I think?). That isn't going to be an option for most through... using cloud storage changes that though, imagine being anywhere in the world and being able to natively play (or fetch if you know you are going offline, hence the need for a lot of storage on the devices as well) anything from your hires library. In my case, the alternative is spending many thousands of $ on 128GB mSD cards, and playlist management becomes a nightmare if I want to cross mSD cards (IOW, I can't do that effectively). I also cannot use my favorite playlist of all, every song I own, random selection, let the universe pick what I hear next
.
My biggest requirement would be that hi-res DAPs in the future either have a ton of storage (I am thinking in terms of TB), and/or support some a way to easily play music from a person's cloud storage solution(s) of choice, perhaps via an intermediary app/player integration. A bonus would be able to transparently merge the media contents from ALL of a particular person's cloud storage providers (I have 50 GB on Dropbox, 100GB on MicroSfot SkyDrive, 50GB on box.com, etc.). With the availability of high bandwidth mobile connectivity options (LTE, XLTE, etc.,they speak in Mbps now, its great, see: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2459237,00.asp for how bandwidth in your city measures up) as well as Wi-Fi, I think we are close to a time when streaming hires music (not just flac, but maybe DSD) is becoming a reality!