Being an audiophile ain’t easy. Much as you can appreciate listening to music on your everyday smartphone, you can’t help but know deep down you can be listening to something much better. And while there are some options in audiophile-grade portable players, Onkyo just made things more affordable than ever with the DP-X1.
Armed with two ESS Sabre 9601K amplifiers and two ESS Sabre digital-to-analog converters, the device delivers the kind of power and signal control you’re never going to get from a smartphone. There’s also two balanced drives that support both ACG and BTL, ensuring cleaner and clearer sound with excellent stability.
The Onkyo DP-X1 supports all popular hi-res audio formats, including 11.2MHz DSD, WAV, FLAC, ALAC, AIFF, and even MQA (via a firmware update scheduled for mid-2016). Want to play MP3s? Even those will sound better, with onboard real-time DSD conversion upscaling everything to DSD-quality audio. Other audio features include a high-precision equalizer with 16,384 bands, a 2.5mm 4-pole balanced headphones output, and a 3.5mm 3-pole headphone output.
Clad in a smartphone-like form factor, the audio player comes with a 4.7-inch capacitive screen, 32GB of onboard storage, two microSD card slots that can handle up to 200GB cards each (your hi-res files will need that space), WiFi, and Bluetooth. It runs Android 5.1.1, so you can use it with your favorite online streaming services, as well as run any apps, watch any movie, and play any game that you normally do on an Android phone.
Available now, the Onkyo DP-X1 is priced at $899.