what DAP do you use? Do you think it’s worth it?

bought a Sony NW-ZX507 when I accidentally fell down the “hI-rEs” rabbithole. I could have/should have just used that money to buy a phone with an SD slot, in the long run I’d have been much happier. The thinking at the time was to have a separate device so I wasn’t constantly using my phone, but that rarely happened - it just made my experience more convoluted with 2 devices, the Do Not Disturb function is a much better option for uninterrupted listening.

For me the only thing that makes the DAP worth it, is not having all of my library stored on my phone. But I travel only a few times a year where if I really wanted more music I’d just would some stuff off my phone first. I’d say it just depends on if you actually think you’d use it over other devices you already own. For me the answer is very seldomnly

I use a DAP for all my music needs because storing my entire music library on a separate device from my phone and not having to use my phone’s battery all the time for all of it is worth it for me. Depending on what you want out of it (Bluetooth, balanced audio outs etc.) what you wanna get will depend, but if it’s just for Bluetooth and having somewhere to plug a 3.5mm jack in basically any will do. I personally use a FiiO M11S, but you probably won’t need that.

I have an ancient video iPod. I really only use it when I’m flying.

I use an old iPod I refurbed myself with microSD storage instead of a hard drive, a big battery so it lasts a week between charging and Rockbox so I don’t need iTunes.

It’s small and the physical controls are easy to operate while its in a pocket.

The audio quality is fine since I mostly use it outside the house when the music is competing with ambient noise like traffic, other people’s conversations, the noise of being on a bus or a train, etc… These aren’t quality listening environments.

My iPod was a fun pandemic project. If you want something portable, there are plenty of new devices you can get with more features for less money.

The only thing that’s good about a DAP is a headphone jack and some of them have knob, most of them also have that extremely percise volume control. Other than that, as my experience goes, I had gone through 3 of them and all 3 of them are bad in some way. The one thing that all 3 of them have are extrememly poor performance and bad software support. One of my DAP would completely shutdown if I plug it in as a DAC for my computer.

I would personally just get something like a LG phone and use it as a DAP since it has very good DAC chip inside it.

I have both Lotoo PAW Gold and Lotoo PAW Gold Touch Ti. I love them. I had a Sony Zx507 but the unit is very slow and the apps started to be slow. Also it did not produce enough power to some IEMs. This decided me to not get an Android based DAP as I would like to use it for longer than 5 years.

I dont have a use for one. 99% of the time im listening to my headphones at the desk and the rest is IEMs in bed with a dongle.

If you are thinking about a DAP, but don’t know, if it’s worth it and aren’t sure you need it, then you don’t need it. And after that if you still think about a DAP, then don’t go for something expensive, because it’s not worth it. Buy a phone (older LG with Quad DAC) and a SD card, or a USB dongle for your phone. If this is not enough, buy something like Shanlings M1S or so under 200/300 USD, that’s more than enough. I’ve bought an Hiby R5 Gen II and it’s fine, but could spend that money elswhere:)

I used to just use my Galaxy Note 9 as my main media device, had all my music on it - but as new phones ditched the headphone jack I decided it was time - I had an iPod back in 2007 that I dearly loved (still have it, but its still the original, essentially dead, battery) - started looking around and settled on Fiio M11 - had a pro, now am on to the Plus Ltd. and am real happy with it. It is my main music device now. Got mine lightly used from eBay, no regrets.

Yes, a phone

I bought Shanling M0 Pro cause it’s smol. An alternative form factor than just using my phone.

I have an Fiio M7 and when I got it, it was worth it for me because at the time I had an iPhone 12 64GB, so I used the M7 for portable music player with a 512GB micro-SD. Since the phone space was too small for my music library.

But since I upgraded phones to a galaxy A53, I don’t really use my M7 anymore, due to the A53 having a micro-SD slot. It is something different if I switched to a phone without one, as I would still be using the M7.

So, it really depends on you wants and needs really.

I bought an Astell & Kern SR35 recently, so I didn’t have to keep messing around with converting my FLACs to ALAC or AAC and using bloody iTunes to get my music on to my phone.

Previously I was able to fit my lossless library onto my 512Gb phone when converted down to AAC, but I now I just have a 1Tb SD in the DAP which is synced with my local digital library (Roon) and the A&K works great.

Battery life is pretty decent, it is very small and pocketable and has plenty of power to drive my IEMS and Open Backed cans. Works with Roon & Tidal too when needed.

I have a “FreeSync” job setup on my media PC and very few weeks I push the latest library to the SD card and off we go.

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…to add, it was kind of nice to come full circle! I bought my very first “big boy” DAP back In 2003 and it was an iRiver H120. I still have it and it still works, so coming back to Astell & Kern 20 years later (iRiver became A&K) tickled me.

I have the original fiio m11 and love it, will use it till it dies