We’ll look at what portable high-resolution music players are, and how they can bring out the most in your digital music.

- Most affordable portable high-resolution player — Sony NW-A306 Walkman®
- Most value-packed portable high-resolution player — Sony NW-ZX707 Walkman
- Best modular portable high-resolution player — Astell&Kern A&futura SE180
- Best audiophile portable music player — Sony NW-WM1ZM2 Signature Series Walkman
- Most built-in storage — Astell&Kern A&ultima SP3000

Personal audio’s hypercars are portable high-resolution music players. They were created with high-resolution audio in mind.

The resolution of high-res files is higher than that of CD quality (16-bit/44.1kHz). Even specialised formats like DSD and MQA can be supported by some players.

Check out the post we wrote on all the complexities of high-res audio if you want to learn more about the ins and outs of it.

The question, “Isn’t a portable high-res player just a glorified MP3 player?” may come to mind. Not exactly.

MP3 player that is more than that

Although portable high-res players are perfectly capable of playing MP3 files, their intended use is far broader. To distinguish themselves from your standard MP3 player, they feature top-tier digital-to-analog converters, specialised digital filters, and expensive headphone amplifier chips. All of them include top-notch circuitry and parts that were created to amplify the sound of your favourite music.

Finding the ideal portable music player might be difficult. Here are my top recommendations to get you going.

Sony NW-A306 Walkman is the most economical portable high-resolution player.

You can’t go wrong with Sony’s NW-A306 if you want outstanding sound on a tight price.

The entry-level portable high-res player from the company, it has a lot of features hidden beneath its stylish hood. Its internal 32-bit/384kHz digital-to-analog converter chip accurately captures the subtleties of your music.

Since the player runs on the Android operating system, Android smartphone users should be familiar with its user interface. Directly from the Google Play store, you can download music streaming apps and start listening to your favourite music.

This player can wirelessly stream and download music, as well as send it to speakers, headphones, and other devices through Bluetooth. Additionally, since the “A306,” you don’t have to worry about fidelity loss when streaming to other devices.

Specs

32GB internal flash memory (SD card slot accepts up to 1TB SD cards)
built-in rechargeable battery lasts up to 36 hours
Bluetooth with support for aptX HD and LDAC formats for high-fidelity streaming
plays a wide range of digital music formats, including MP3, FLAC, Apple Lossless, AAC, HE-AAC, APE, WMA, WAV, AIFF, DSD, and MQA

Sony NW-ZX707 Walkman is the most affordable portable high-resolution music player.

For less than $1,000, Sony’s new NW-ZX707 offers a tonne of audiophile pleasure. To begin with, Sony improved the sound quality by adding many high-end parts to its circuit board, such as a robust high polymer capacitor and unique bypass capacitors.

To further lessen distortion, they added a massive coil filter to the balanced headphone output of the “ZX707”. To stop noise from seeping in, the digital components are even covered by a machined copper block.

A real workhorse, the player’s 32-bit/384kHz digital-to-analog converter chip gives your music a good polish before it reaches your ears. In relation to digital signals, the ‘ZX707’s handling of them is quite intriguing. Before they reach the DAC, the player will convert PCM audio files to 11.2MHz DSD files, and the DAC will natively render that DSD audio stream to give your music an analog-like sound.

Sony’s Digital Sound Enhancement Engine (DSEE) UltimateTM employs artificial intelligence to upscale lossy recordings, including MP3s, in real time for more clarity and detail.

A balanced 4.4mm headphone output and an unbalanced 3.5mm headphone output on the player’s top allow it to work with virtually all headphones on the market.

And if you’re concerned about how much listening time you’ll receive, you’ll be relieved to learn that this player can play continuously for nearly a full day before needing to be recharged.

Specs

64GB internal flash memory (expandable with SD cards up to 1TB)
25 hours of playback on a single charge
DSD Remastering Engine resamples PCM files to 11.2MHz DSD for greater clarity and accuracy
supports MP3, FLAC, Apple Lossless, AAC, HE-AAC, APE, WMA, WAV, AIFF, DSD, and MQA audio files

Astell&Kern A&futura SE180 is the best modular portable high-resolution player.

For Astell&Kern, the A&futura SE180 is a first. This player is made entirely of aluminium, and it stands out for having a swappable DAC module that radically modifies the device’s audio output.

Astell&Kern offers various DAC modules for sale if you’d like a different sound signature or additional processing power.

The SE180’s 5″ 1080p touchscreen provides more than enough space for smoothly navigating between folders and albums.

A volume knob that serves as a convenient multi-purpose button for playing, pausing, skipping, and restarting tracks is also located on the side of the device.

For connecting suitable headphones, the top provides a single 3.5mm unbalanced output, two balanced 2.5mm and 4.4mm outputs, and no other outputs.

Specs

256GB internal flash memory (expandable with SD cards up to 1TB)
10-1/2 hours of playback on a single charge
included DAC module comes with ESS SABRE ES9018PRO 32-bit DAC chip
supports WAV, FLAC, WMA, MP3, DSD, OGG, APE, AAC, ALAC, AIFF, DFF, DSF, and MQA files

Best portable music player for audiophiles is the Sony NW-WM1ZM2 Signature Series Walkman.

Any product that carries the “Signature Series” moniker from Sony has high expectations. Fortunately, the NW-WM1ZM2 much surpasses any expectations. This audiophile-grade player exudes luxury and excellent sound.

To begin with, the chassis is constructed of gold-plated oxygen-free copper, which reduces noise.

KIMBER KABLE® connections made by hand-crafting braid are used inside the components to ensure the best possible signal stability and sound quality.

Additionally, the headphone amplifier component is quite robust. The S-Master® HX amplifier from Sony produces up to 250mW through the balanced 4.4mm output and 60mW through the 3.5mm output.

Additionally, this ruthless machine doesn’t skimp on signal processing. The digital-to-analog converter performs a fantastic job, bringing out new, unheard-of complexity and subtleties in your music.

When you want to go old school, there is also a wonderful vinyl processing engine that gives your music the analogue warmth of vinyl.

The ‘WM1ZM2 uses your Wi-Fi to stream content and has an Android interface for simple use. You can now visit the app store and download your preferred music streaming service as a result.

For high-fidelity music streaming to a set of Bluetooth headphones or wireless speakers, the player also includes Bluetooth with LDAC.

Specs

256GB internal flash memory (expandable with SD cards)
rechargeable battery provides up to 40 hours of music playback
Digital Sound Enhancement Engine (DSEE) Ultimate upscales compressed digital formats like MP3
plays MP3, FLAC, AAC, ALAC, AIFF, WMA, DSD, and LPCM audio files

Astell&Kern A&ultima SP3000, the majority of built-in storage

The A&ultima SP3000, Astell&Kern’s premier portable high-resolution player, may also be their best-sounding model to date.

It has cutting-edge, specially created circuitry for the best playback precision. To provide you the greatest sound quality possible, every component of the “SP3000” was carefully chosen.

Everything You Need To Know about DTS Sound Unbound

The DAC chips, digital clock, and headphone amplifier are located inside A&K’s renowned Teraton Alpha module, which is used by the player. The module contains six audiophile-grade digital-to-analog converters.

The top-of-the-line AKM AK4499EX chips make up four of them, while AKM AK4191EQ chips make up the final two. To aid in channel separation and prevent any potential crosstalk between the channels, the DACs are split between the left and right channels.

The circuits entering and leaving the DACs are additionally physically divided and isolated using silver-plated shielding. The portion that powers headphones effectively and quietly is the headphone amplifier.

A&K made sure the SP3000 was as source-inclusive as possible because it was a flagship player. It can pair with Bluetooth headphones to broadcast music and also stream music over Wi-Fi from NAS drives or desktops. Even MQA files are natively supported.

The player has 512GB of internal storage that can be increased to 1.5TB using a 1TB SD card, providing you plenty of room for all of your high-resolution files.

Specs

512GB internal flash memory (expandable with SD card)
stream music stored on NAS drives or computers to the player
six digital-to-analog converter chips; four AKM AK4499EX chips and two AKM AK4191EQ process left and right channels independently
balanced 2.5mm and 4.4mm headphone outputs; unbalanced 3.5mm outputs
plays MP3, FLAC, WAV, ALAC, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, AIFF, WMA, DFF, DSF, and MQA files

Recommendations for headphones

If you don’t already have some, you might want to pick up a pair of headphones to go with your chosen portable high-res player.

I would definitely advise Sony’s noise-canceling WH-1000XM5s if you have chosen a Bluetooth music player and intend to listen to music wirelessly.

They are supportive of LDAC for hi-fi Bluetooth streaming from compatible devices, comfortable, and have excellent noise cancellation.

Review Audictus Dopamine Pro, is it Good Wireless headphones with ANC for $75 ?

If you decide to go wired, I suggest taking a look at Meze Audio’s 99 Classics. The most comfortable headphones we have are these lovely over-ears.

They have one of the friendliest sound signatures and are among the simplest headphones to drive. Given their low price of about $400, the level of detail they can recreate is astounding.

Sennheiser’s HD660S2 headphones rank above the 99 Classics in terms of quality. Since its inception, Sennheiser’s iconic HD600 series has been the gateway into the world of audiophiles, and the 660S2 gracefully continues that tradition.

They make an excellent companion for a mid-range portable player thanks to their classic appearance, clear drivers, and outstanding detail.

The next level up are Focal’s Celestee headphones. These closed-back headphones employ Focal’s renowned M-shaped drivers to provide sound that is precisely regulated and lightning-fast.

The Celestees have an incredibly large soundstage for closed-back headphones. They appear quite sharp as well.

The Empyrean headphones from Meze Audio complete the list. They were crafted by hand and by machine at the Romanian headquarters of Meze.

These headphones have some of the deepest, most effortless bass available, as well as excellent clarity and detail.

The Need-to-Know

You’ve made the decision to spend money on a good MP3 player. What you need to know is as follows:

Most of our preferred digital audio players aren’t made to be carried outside, so portability is a concern.

The Astell and Kern versions, in example, are opulent gadgets that draw attention when placed on a coffee table and aren’t made to endure rain or other outdoor elements.

Choose a less expensive device if you intend to take your player to the gym or on a flight so that it won’t be as problematic if it gets a few bumps when it’s in a bag or tucked away in your pocket.

Display: You’ll need your audio player to have a screen if you wish to view album art, browse menus, adjust the equaliser, or switch between tracks. Even while not all of them have touch displays, every model on our list has one.

Operating system: Most of the MP3 players on our list are powered by Google’s Android operating system.

Since the OS is open-source, any business can use it as the foundation for their software, however some, like the high-end Astell and Kern models, utilise a customised version of Android.

Storage: How many tracks are you willing to store? We believe the best case scenario is “as much as possible,” so be sure to pay attention to the internal storage capacity, which is expressed in gigabytes (GB).

That allows you to expand capacity even more by inserting it into a port on the gadget. Compared to normal MP3s, high-resolution files take up more space (a song in the high-quality FLAC format is about 15-20 MB versus about 3-5 MB for a standard MP3). Usually, having more storage is better.

Audio files: The audio files you will be listening to are now at our disposal. Here are the essentials rather than going into bit depth and sample rates (although if you’re curious, check out this breakdown).

To put it simply, high-resolution audio files are bigger, “lossless,” or sounding better than CD quality, and contain more information from the original recording methods.

In contrast, “lossy” files like MP3 or AAC are thought to not sound as nice because they are compressed.

Although you lose some of the finer elements in your music, it is still easier to save on phones or tablets due to the significantly reduced file sizes. FLAC, WAV, and ALAC are examples of common high-resolution (or “hi-res”) files.

Battery life: All the models on our list give you at least 10 hours of listening time. The rule here is the same as with storage capacity: more battery life is always better.

Connectivity: You’ll always want to check the port selection of your digital audio or MP3 player. All our favourite models have a trusty 3.5mm headphone jack so you connect a quality set of wired headphones. Some players also have slots for SD cards for you to add audio files, or wifi for accessing some streaming apps like Spotify or Tidal. With the exception of the budget Sony NW-E394, all the models on our list charge via USB-C.

What Was Not Included

Although we would have wanted to include a retro iPod Classic on this list, we had to face the same realities as you: it won’t function as well with 2023 technology and its battery won’t retain a charge. You won’t find a brand-new model, although occasionally they are available in decent condition on websites like Back Market, Amazon Renewed, and musicMagpie.

Although the Classic boasts a tonne of storage, a once-visionary scroll wheel, and the potential to transport us back to the height of our mid-2000s pop-punk love, there’s no denying that you’re definitely better off with more recent software and modern conveniences like USB-C charging. A Sony or Astell and Kern model would be preferable. Among the models, one is missing

Stay tuned to get more updates

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