High Quality Video Player For Pc
Jacque Waiden
Despite the death of the iPod, old-school portable MP3 players that you can take everywhere with you are still alive and kicking. They're far more advanced than just storing and playing MP3 files these days, too. Today's pocketable music players fully support high-resolution audio formats such as WAV, FLAC, ALAC, AIFF and DSD files (which your smartphone can't convert), and pack in high-quality digital-to-analogue-converters, amplifiers and software whose main job is to ensure your music files are played in the best, lossless quality possible.
Many DAPs these days will let you download Tidal and Qobuz so you can stream your favourite playlists, and with many players now boasting a day's worth of battery, it means you can always carry your music library with you and listen without interruption even in the depths of the London Underground or up in the air. Most players will also have expandable memory storage, so you can carry thousands of albums with you.
In the end, it depends on your listening habits. If you want to keep music listening separate from your phone, are on the move a lot, or are interested in getting the best sound possible from a pocket-friendly device, a portable music player is a great option to consider.
This will depend on the format and size of your files. As a rough estimate: your average three-minute song in 128kbps MP3 quality has a file size of 3MB, while the same in WAV/CD quality is considerably larger at 30MB, with FLAC files falling in the middle at 15MB.
This means a player's standard onboard storage of 32GB will hold just over 10,000 MP3 files. You'll want a larger (at least 64GB) storage capacity if you want to store multiple albums in CD or hi-res quality, while investing in a 1TB memory card will help you expand that even further.
Just beware that the advertised storage won't be entirely for storing your music. A portion of that 32GB (or 64GB) onboard storage will be taken up by the player's system and software, so make sure to check the actual available storage in the settings.
You will also need wi-fi to download streaming services like Tidal and Qobuz, and stream online songs. However, if you don't stream music and just want to play music files stored locally on your player for a truly offline experience, you can turn off wi-fi entirely. This will keep it clear of any connectivity issues, and save battery life, too.
If the player has wi-fi connectivity and you can download music streaming apps like Tidal, Qobuz and more, then yes. While you might buy MP3/hi-res players mainly to listen to music offline, any player with wi-fi capability can stream music.
Unlike smartphones, which juggle everything from GPS tracking and photo taking to video calls and internet browsing, portable music players or DAPs (digital audio players) are designed first and foremost to store and play music, therefore boasting large storage capacities and sound quality-first componentry. Even the best budget players sound miles better than even a premium phone. Nowadays, music players can likely handle any type of music file you throw at them, too, and offer built-in access to music streaming services like Tidal and Spotify.
So whether you have a trove of downloaded tracks you want to listen to on the go, want to hear streams in much better quality than your phone can offer, or are after a compact digital source to feed your hi-fi system, a hi-res music player is certainly worth considering.
Our in-house team of experienced reviewers has been testing portable music players since the heydays of the Walkman, iPod Classic and pill-shaped MP3 player, and while the choice has dwindled since then due to the rise of phone listening, fantastic players from the likes of Sony, Astell & Kern and FiiO still exist to offer stunning audiophile-level sound quality and gorgeous portable design...
It supports the Roon platform and has built-in access to streaming services such as Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon Music and Apple Music, while two-way Bluetooth (aptX HD and LDAC codecs are supported) allows you to stream music to wireless headphones or speakers, and send music to the player from another source.
There's no chance the SR35 will miss a beat with the music you send its way. As our expert reviewers note in our A&norma SR35 review, "the SR35 has the punch and rhythmic drive to keep you tapping along to upbeat tracks, and the insight to draw you into the details of those calmer ones".
The presentation is indeed hugely likeable overall, with a tonal balance slightly on the rich side, and a combination of power and finesse that feels very mature for a source at this level that most headphones will get along just fine with.
If you want portable and pocketable without spending a fortune, the NW-A306 is the perfect-sized player for your needs. It's compact enough to fit in our palms and pockets comfortably, and we love the scalloped textured back that gives us a good grip without sacrificing style.
Internally, NW-A306 is packed to the gills with features: the hi-res file support is extensive and excellent at this affordable price, the full Android OS means it effectively operates similarly to a smartphone (for better or worse) and lets you download your favourite music streaming service app. It even supports the higher-quality LDAC and aptX Bluetooth codecs.
If you really do value quality on the go, though (and have the funds to spare), this Astell & Kern flagship simply must make your shortlist. The high-end player is packed with useful features and built to the highest standards, even if it's a bit chunkier than your standard portable device.
That all brings us to the SP3000's raison d'etre, and this is where the premium player truly shines. Across the board the A&K player has so much to recommend it, bringing together a tangible sense of musical insight as it coveys dynamic contrasts and rhythmic patterns with skill and intuition.
"The organisation of information is excellent," we said in our A&ultima SP3000 review, "with the player sounding as cohesive and balanced as they come... tonally things are nicely judged and it is a pleasant surprise to find out just how authoritative and muscular the SP3000 sounds."
If you've got the money and you're passionate about sound quality (and have equally impressive audiophile headphones or hi-fi system components to partner it with), we'd wholeheartedly recommend the A&ultima SP3000.
Whatever your budget, you will be surprised at what you can get for your money these days. Every player here supports the low-quality 'vanilla' MP3 and AAC files, of course, but we can all do better than that in 2024. All of the models above also support high-resolution audio files, such as 24-bit FLAC and WAV files, DSD and even sometimes MQA. We would recommend checking each player's specifications to make sure it can play the file types you already own.
Have an extensive digital music collection? No matter how large their built-in storage bank, all digital audio players have microSD memory slots, so your assembled throng of tracks, albums and artists need never stop growing. Expandable memory also means you can store all of your music in the highest quality possible, without worrying about those large WAV/DSD file sizes taking up all of the internal storage space.
You should always check the actual onboard storage of the player (sometimes the operating software takes up more space than what's advertised) to see if you'll need to invest in an additional memory card. For instance, 32GB of internal storage will be eaten up very quickly by large hi-res files, so make sure the expandable memory can accommodate 1TB or more so you can carry more albums around with you.
Many players also offer more than one choice of headphone socket. The standard 3.5mm headphone jack is always there (thankfully, since it's long gone from phones) but you might also see a 4.4mm balanced headphone output, which is compatible with certain headphones.
But the budget and mid-priced models recommended above still deliver enjoyable sound for their asking prices. And remember, no matter how good it looks, portable players should ideally be easy to carry and comfortable to hold in your hand.
After ensuring the music player is run in for a length of time and plugging in a pair of our favourite wired headphones, we listen to the player over the course of weeks. These music players are tested in our dedicated listening rooms in Reading and London, and are placed in our pockets and travel with us during the review period, so we can gauge how portable and easy to use on the fly they really are.
Most important in our reviewing process is that each product is compared with the best in its price and class. What Hi-Fi? is all about comparative testing, so we keep our favourite five-star and Award-winning digital audio players nearby so we can benchmark the performance accordingly.
As with all What Hi-Fi? reviews, the final verdict and star rating are agreed upon by the review team, to eliminate individual bias and ensure our advice is thorough and consistent. We are proud to have delivered honest, independent reviews for over 45 years, with no input from brands, PRs or commercial teams, so you can trust our advice and buying advice.
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