[Sandstorm]

Looking for a DAP that is:
- Significantly expandable -- I mostly listen to my own music rather than stream
- Easy, logical UI / management
- Wifi / bluetooth would be great but not absolutely mandatory
- All my music currently is ALAC and don't plan to get too exotic with formats going forward
- I listen mostly to jazz / rock / classical.

Willing to spend $300-800 (plus SD cards).

Past reviews / recs seem to indicate Opus 1 and XDP-100r as good candidates, but lots of new equipment has hit the market in the last year or so. Is one of those my best choice? Something else out recently that is even better?

 

[Fred Wang]

I can't comment on too many, as I don't have the money to try all of them out, but I use the Astell and Kern AK70, which I think sounds phenomenal for the price. I looked at the XDP-100r as well, but there were concerns at the time I was looking into loose connections as well as battery life, and I didn't want to deal with the possibility.