Do I really need to spend 200+USD to get a decent Portable Media Player?

[Nohemi]

Hi

I'm getting into "hi-res audio" and started stock piling some FLAC files, but I have no portable device that can play them. So I've been looking at some media players around 100 USD, but found that most of them either have quality control issues or deal-breaking downsides. Some of the models I looked at where the fiio m7, xduoo x3ii, and the fiio m3k. The fiio m7 had some quality control issues on the audio jack (and poor battery life), and the xduoo x3ii had pretty poor firmware and very loud hiss when plugging in the audio jack (though I find those reasons to be somewhat bearable). Can I get a 100USD portable media player for my FLAC files, or should I look at 200 USD or upwards? Anyone have any recommendations or can vouch for the players I listed? I have a budget around 100 USD, but I am open to 200 USD players, but not much above that price point.

thanks

[The Flying Sloth]

Let me see if I can find my previous post about lossless but the long and short of it is I highly doubt you'll be able to hear a difference. Amplifier, headphones and a whole bunch of other stuff matter a tonne more than lossless files.

[sub68]

I personally run a sony e394 as my mp3 player

[The Flying Sloth]

Here we go, excuse the copy-paste but,
Are you sure you can hear the difference in lossless files? I've done extensive phase inversion analysis between 320kbps MP3s, WAV and FLAC files and really there's almost no difference. Try this link, I compared a FLAC I had laying around with a 320kbps MP3 (that I created from the FLAC) and phase inverted one, the differences are so minuscule that to really hear them you have to turn your volume way up. 

This link lets you test your hearing against lossless and lossy files to see if you can hear a difference. Try that too

In practice I think a decent MP3 player (or just using your phone, maybe with external dacamp) will be more than good enough

[rice guru]

You can get some pretty decent stuff for under $200 even under $100. You just typically loose out on software support and feel specs , and amp ability usually having to pair it with a amp or something. The best package you can get is get a older lg phone with a quad dac as they sound pretty great and the software is miles ahead of anything at this price point.

[Nohemi]

2 hours ago, rice guru said:

You can get some pretty decent stuff for under $200 even under $100. You just typically loose out on software support and feel specs , and amp ability usually having to pair it with a amp or something. The best package you can get is get a older lg phone with a quad dac as they sound pretty great and the software is miles ahead of anything at this price point.

what model of lg phone should I be looking for?

[rice guru]

all the V series phones have a quad dac. withthe v1- being the worse but stills ounds pretty decent. the asian G6, any g7, g8, and 8x.if you can find them used or even new sometimes for the older v series they can be found at your desired price point. even come with easily replaceable batteries/