Why do digital audio players exist? Simply put: because many smartphones just don’t sound very good. They aren’t designed to satisfy audiophile sensibilities. Furnishing the mass market with thinner smartphones loaded with more resolving cameras is a higher priority for manufacturers like Samsung, Motorola, Huawei and Sony than delivering better sound quality through the 3.5mm headphone socket. A socket that Apple kicked to the curb two years ago.

And so smartphone users looking for better sound quality on the go often resort to a second device: a dedicated portable music player that’s engineered to sound as good as possible and that, more often than not, adds support for hi-res audio.… Read the full article