Disclaimer: I don’t know much about DAPs
I don’t like carrying a phone a lot of the time when I want to listen to music. I need something small and portable that wouldn’t bother me on a run. Looking for a minimalist device with good battery life and solid controls. I would like to choose albums and/or create playlists and see what is playing. Bluetooth is a plus and lossless compatibility is preferred. I would mostly be driving IEMs and I don’t need balanced ports. Last but not least, especially if lossless, plenty of storage.
Fiio m6 ? Older model but… I have one… really good battery life so far. I use it mostly for bluetooth in my work vehicle. I think I charge it like once a month. Granted it is not used every day but still. I have a fancier dap that I use for normal mobile use as it is balanced and more feature rich.
Having a price target to stay around will help a lot with suggestions!
Also, do you have a size restriction? I’m guessing something smaller than a modern smart phone based on your mention that you don’t like carrying phones around a lot.
I personally suggest avoiding anything that doesn’t use a USB C port.
Hifi Walker H2. This is the DAP that started my desired to collect small non-Android players. They’re available for $123 on Amazon, they sound great, they’re built very well, and they have quite a bit of driving power packed in there as well.
I have a FiiO M6 I am selling and a Plenue D2 as well. The FiiO is going to be cheaper.
The D2 has solid build and some would say there is more character to its “tuning”, but it doesn’t have bluetooth like the FiiO does. It is more compact though, and has balanced output. Either would be below your budget.
EDIT: Something that’s rather feature limited but sounds BOMBASTIC so I’m not letting it go until I’ve at least tried it with the op-amps coming from China is the F.Audio XS02. Not too small but built like a tank, good battery life, and really great sound. An unusual plus - can very easily be used with thick gloves on!
Might “bother you on a run” though.
If you want to come in nearer the top end of your budget, I agree that the Hiby R3 Pro series (Saber implementation barely makes a difference) are the top choices.
I am this type enthusiast forever. You don’t have many options, but there are at least a few, which ticks all the boxes.
Sony A55 - second hand only, but perfect UI, size, battery. My favourite
Shanling q1 - a bit bulkier, but great battery, more power and even more functions than A55 (all you could ask for apart from streaming)
Shanling M0 - matchbox size Q1, with worse battery. I would wait for a new edition that should be announced any day soon with some tidal capability + balanced output (via special adapter)
Hiby R3 pro saber - q1 + tidal and much more power in short. Probably the most popular out of all of those
I own a Cowon Plenue D - it’s good, 100 hours playtime for battery life. the thing will run for ages. (The Plenue D2 by comparison only runs for 45 hours, still respectable, but it will also do balanced output if you care about that) But you can’t find them new anymore, your only hope is to get one used.
I also own the Hiby R3 Pro Saber - but it’s got very short battery life, only about 6-8 hours of constant playback from a full charge. I only got it so I could run balanced headphones that require a fair amount of power. But I don’t suggest it unless you are going for specifically that.
I just bought the Hifi Walker H2 - but it won’t arrive at my house for about 8 or 9 days. It’s battery life seems acceptable (per the more positive reviews i’ve seen) and it has pretty much every feature you said you wanted. I will test it’s battery life and see how it works out, and go over the sound quality compared to the other two players I mentioned.
I couldn’t tell an appreciable sound quality difference between the Cowon Plenue D and the Hiby R3 Pro Saber using FLAC or MP3 playback, but there is a gigantic difference in battery life to consider there. 100 hours vs 8. - With luck the Hifi Walker H2 will live up to it’s reviews and be a good middle-of-the-road DAP. Will report back after it arrives.
Battery life is affected by things like:
-type of files playing
(FLAC vs MP3 - FLAC uses more power - I run a mix)
-screen on/off while in-use
-bluetooth/wireless on/off
-volume level
-type of headphones used
-and likely other things I haven’t listed
Just chiming in on the battery life: 8 hours has to be purely FLAC. I have owned a number of r3 pros and a Saber, and running mostly 320kbps MP3 with some lower quality and some FLAC, I can get 16+ hours single-ended EASY. Battery is huge for me as I often have to roadtrip for work up to 12 hours a day driving, and the R3 pros have never let me down. It is also worth noting that, while the Plenue D/2/3 are indeed the kings of shee batter life, they are far less feature-oriented than the r3, have a worse screen with worse response time when browsing and officially support smaller storage size for micro XDs. I used a Penue D until I ran it into the ground, then briefly a Fiio X1 gen 1 until I arrived at the R3 pro/Saber and it’s basically my ride-or-die model until someone gives a better all-rounder.
(the battery for the D and D2 are the same exact battery) You will need to solder it in. And getting the unit open might be slightly tricky - this website has internal pictures, the website is in french, but the pictures help.
As you can see the Plenue D is held together by internal plastic clips, you can probably use something like an ifixit kit to pull off the back plate to get inside. If you know how to solder a bit (hobbyist level), you can probably replace the battery fairly easily.
It was a combination of use case, battery life loss and upgraditis; I actually still have my Plenue D (as well as my Fiio X1) as spares in the event something happens to my r3 pro, as well as in the event a buddy gets the DAP itch. That being said, I have used both the D and X1 since moving to the r3 pro(s), and man, it’s kind of a rough UI experience. Every DAP has its use cases, but I feel that the r3 is the best all-rounder on the market (based on my personal use).
I do love the Plenue D - and you are right, the UI feels pretty cryptic at times, not very user friendly, but if you just want to load up a bunch of songs and play or shuffle through them, it’s pretty great. I also loved it’s preset audio modification choices (the Jet Effect options). And practically nothing beats the D’s battery life. I never noticed it was slow at all, mine starts up very fast from shutdown and plays music quite efficiently. I haven’t owned a player that beats the Plenue D’s audio quality yet, i’m sure they exist, but I haven’t tried them personally. I spent a few hours today doing A/B comparisons to the Hiby R3 Pro - and they are practically identical there, with the exception that the Hiby R3 Pro can drive higher power headphones.
But the Plenue D lacks many modern amenities, no bluetooth or wireless of any kind, it uses Micro USB a terrible connection compared to USB-C, and it doesn’t push difficult to drive headphones well at all, and only has a single unbalanced 3.5mm headphone jack.
The Hiby R3 is pretty good, much easier to navigate it’s menus, many more options, and a good modern player.
pertaining to the Hiby R3’s battery life, I run balanced and notoriously difficult to drive headphones when i’m using the Hiby R3 (ModHouse Audio Argon Mk3 and the Argon T60RP), and i’m also running a mix of FLAC and high resolution MP3 files, I avoid low resolution audio as a general habit. So that probably isn’t helping efficiency at all - but it fits my use case well, so i’m happy enough with it. Not many portable players can properly run balanced Argon’s at any appreciable audio level. So i’m happy it just does that! But yah, it sucks the power like mad to do that even with every other option turned off during playback.
Running Argons balanced? Yeah, that explains the drain lol; I use mine primarily as a line-out source or with various IEMs/buds.
I do agree that the Plenue D boots nice and quick (one of its better features!), but when I say that it’s slow compared to the r3, I’m talking about the scrolling and responsiveness of the menus when going between files/albums/menus. Again though, it just a QOL nitpick.
Hehe yeah, i’m not nice to the battery in my Hiby R3 at all, but that’s why I bought the thing, specifically to run Argons, and it does it alright (for as long as the battery lasts)…
Oh! One more thing about the Plenue D2 model specifically - you can also upgrade it’s ‘internal’ memory to 128gb - it uses a micro SD card inside for the ‘internal’ memory too. And that can be replaced to get it up to much higher memory than it was originally sold with.
Here is a link to a forum which details the process for that, and opening it with more detailed pictures and instructions.
(This ‘internal’ memory upgrade does not work the same as the standard D model as the D2, because the D doesn’t have the same micro SD slot for the internal memory)
This is still useful for the instructions on how to get the case open though, that is the same process on both models.
@Ryan_AZ - Battery life on these players is also closely linked to if the player uses Android OS or not. The players that use a more simplified and dedicated OS tend to have better battery life than those which run Android.
Android sadly is not very well optimized these days for extremely efficient low power usage that can be accomplished with more custom OS versions that come with various players. The upside to android though is they tend to give you more access for doing other things… like web browsing, and running paint programs or e-readers and such.
(although doing things like web-browsing or running a paint program on a tiny DAP, i can’t see that as a very good reason to justify lowering battery life by running android OS)
a Cowon Plenue D3 (PD3) is a tad above your budget but solid none the less 
