Yeah, personally I would prefer something like a lg v20 and an ifi xdsd in this price range, but it’s not as convenient as a full on dap
Also with the sd card thing, if you only carry a reasonable amount of music with you, you can pretty cheaply get a 256 gb card, and prices will come down for 512 gb cards as well fairly soon
I too was considering M11, R5, and DX160. Ended up with R5. Haven’t gotten it though, so can’t give impressions yet. This would replace my phone+NX4 DSD combo.
I can’t wait to see all the impressions on the various daps!
Cayin N8, iBassx DX220, Fiio M11 Pro and hiby R8 or shanling M6
Oh the R8 is new to me - very cool … SIM card slot is what I wondered about since months
hope this dripples down to the mid-fi DAPs in future
I think the price of R8 will be more than $1000
like a modern high end mobile phone - no apple fanboy here
if this feature comes down to the mid-fi DAP segement in future and you even get a “phone function” added…
That’s essentially what high end daps are now lol
I mean stuff like the lootoo paw gold and questyle daps are the outliers now
I don’t know how I feel about the sim card. In my opinion DAP’s are a get away from my phone.
Well, the deed is done now. 11.11 pushed me over the edge and Ali had too good an offer to refuse, basically 50€ off with cupons and free shipping. Now I don’t have to scour around the market near Black Friday at least.
F to my wallet though.
What did you end up getting? and with which combo of savings?
I got the Hiby R5 from Hiby’s Aliexpress store, they had it 50 bucks off there with some added cupons.
Here’s my question: what would be the budget DAP king?
it would be your smartphone! 
Presuming it would be a dedicated DAP
well…the problem with budget DAP is they don’t give you access to the Play store…only the more expensive models do, so the best thing is to use your phone, which does have access to the Play (or App if iOS) store and use a portable DAC/AMP like the ES100 or EK10.
I would say if you want a budget dap king, the Lg v20 can be had for like under 200, and then strap on a dac/amp combo of your choosing
Is there any reason you value the Play/App stores so highly? If all they are wanting it for is music playback, and don’t want to stream, would a phone really be worth it that much more?
Also, would the K3 or Q1 Mk2 not be better?
having access to the Play store will let you install different players, EQ’s and other software good to help / use for listening to your music.