[jude]

  ...All the impressions trickling in seem to put the AK240 at or below the current crop's technical performance...

 
Which impressions are these? In my experience with all-in-one digital audio players, the AK240's performance is at or above all but the HM-901, which I personally find it at least on par with. (Yes, I have the FiiO X5 here, too.)
 

  ...And it is based on a free open source software that they could tweak as needed. There was no major investment in software code that much cheaper DAPs have had to do...

 
Are you kidding me? Have you used the current crop of high-res DAPs? (Or, to set up an even starker contrast, the previous crop of high-res DAPs?) While the AK240 is built on Android, it's clear--once you use it--that substantial effort and investment was made in its software and user interface. Are you suggesting that the AK240's player is freely available and already existed prior to its existence, and/or that it could have been accomplished with no major investment in software code? Tell me, then, why on earth none of the other high-res DAPs aren't using it, when it provides a far superior user experience than any of the current crop of high-res DAPs?
 
What's bothersome is that your statement of the investment level--not just your statements about its architecture--is made as though based in fact, not just your opinion and conjecture (when it is just conjecture)
 
Try (a) using it first (b) talking to the development team, if you want to discuss what actually went into this thing.
 

  ...Their core DAC can't even be considered current gen, with the Sabre low power offerings giving raw, measureable improvements (much better THD and DNR)...

 
This focus on DAC chips alone is something I find silly in the desktop DAC department, and no less so here. The DAC chip selection alone is simply not a reliable enough predictor of a DAC component's performance (as heard from its analog outs), as there's so much else that goes on before and after the chip that need to be executed (and that allow for so much variability in design). If chip choice was a reliable enough predictor, we wouldn't even need to bother with reading impressions or reviews of DAC components, we'd just need to look at what DAC chips were employed.
 
Please tell us specifically what issue(s) you have with a doubled-up CS4398 setup, the CS4398 being Cirrus Logic's flagship DAC chip--not to mention the AK240's additional DAC components and design to accommodate native DSD playback. Please tell us how the AK240's DAC section in its entirety--which I believe is currently the only all-in-one-DAP with native DSD playback support (in addition to 24/192 PCM)--is in any way passé. Please tell us specifically how it falls short. Please do this, because you state so definitively, so authoritatively, that it "can't even be considered current gen." What?
 

  ...There is no excuse for A&K. None. None. This is a $2500+ MP3 player with android and download capability. 

 
You are doing what so many in the community here consider a big no-no--you've already reviewed a component you haven't heard, and that you obviously know very little about. You've made statements of error, without even bothering to try to base them in fact.
 
eke2k6, if you don't like its price, don't buy it. And please stop with these nonsense analogies. As difficult as it seems to be for you, please refrain from reviewing it until you've used it. Until then, I'm closing this thread.