Having used many years and an iPod sound output of my smartphone or my tablet, I recently découvret the poor quality of sound output of these devices! After having equipped the excellent Sennheiser HD 25 (available here), so I opted for this player which many critics say much good! Indeed what a surprise !! The shock was terrible, total rediscovery of a rich and powerful sound that vibrates !! It is essential to use this player with music tracks encoded correctly (FLAC or OGG in my case). Indeed MP3 are definitely to be avoided if the quality of the music player will make you realize that this file format is very poor! This player is a must if you are passionate about classical music or voice or vibrating pieces (techno or rap eg harmonics are too poor to be really interesting to listen to this player. Its dual SDXC slot allows you to have music with you 256GB (128GB 2 cards, the maximum available on the market today). Another advantage of this player is used in external DAC for the computer (via USB connection) or smartphone (Android Cyanogen 12 tested successfully, the android device must support OTG mode). It then allows to have a digital set -> Analog much better than the vast majority of the market sound cards. No driver needed under linux and android (automatically recognized as a digital audio output). The player has a digital SPDIF output (RCA mono jack with supplied adapter) to go to a HiFi audio amplifier. It also has a line audio output. It charges via the USB port with the supplied USB cable. Pretty and qualitative metal finish.
Two caveats: -> The interface can be a bit slow to respond. -> Ergonomics of unusual interface (requires little adjustment period).