Questyle QP2R High-Res Portable DAP (Gold)

I bought this from another online retailer, but I've got to give this player some love here on Amazon.But first the bad. The UI is basic. That's kind of OK, I don't make many demands on it, I just like to play albums one at a time all the way through. But there's no album art visible when you scroll through the list, which makes finding something good to play more difficult. Also, you get only the top half of the album cover displayed on the screen when the music is playing, which is pretty lame. However, the worst fail is the steering wheel, taking up half the real estate on the front face, which is apparently some kind of a nostalgia thing for the old iPod classics. Now, in their day, the iPods were pretty good players; but their day is long past, and the steering wheel is just ugly. Plus, and more importantly, it doesn't work unless you stick on a (supplied) rubber ring, which makes it look even more ugly. Pretty poor for the price you're paying. For me, they would have been much better off with a full sized touch screen - Cowon, for example, have got this down pat nowadays. So if you need a good UI, this, sadly, ain't the machine for you. The QP2R is also kind of clunky. It does fit into a coat pocket, but it won't do either your style or your seams any good.But when it comes to playing music, this machine is just wonderful. It simply smokes my next best player, the Cowon Plenue R - OK, it's about twice the price of the R, but I'm a Cowon fanboy and it's not even close. You're getting all the music, not just a reproduction.Most of the time, I listen to the Q2R with Beyerdynamic Xelento earphones, and the combination is immaculate. Any genre, any time, any place; it makes me happy. It also functions extremely ably as a source in my desktop setups. With full size headphones, it doesn't always go as loud as I would like, but there's no sense that it's struggling or hardening up, no thinness in the sound either.I think what I like most about this player is how, when I listen to albums on it that I had previously written down as lacking in musicianship or poor recordings, it brings them back up. You can hear the limitations still, but it brings the music through it all. Its ind of like they used to about a good stylus, that it's better at getting underneath surface noise on vinyl, but with a less obvious technical explanation.You know, I'm really struggling to find ways of describing how good this player sounds without resorting to cliches. A saying that I read somewhere that fits the bill here is that good music can make you smile, but great music can make you cry. Yes, I know that sounds pretentious, but it's the territory that the QP2R takes you to and guides you through.

I give this four stars because of the bad UI and the mediocre battery time, which is for me below what the manufacturer states, may be around 5hours. Still long enough... But now to the sound, which is very delightful indeed. The music is crisp, transparent and very lively. The balanced 2.5mm output is brighter than the 3.5mm unbalanced one, so if you feel some unwanted harshness, try to change. Saying that, it is not a problem for me at all, I enjoy the vivid treble of the balanced output. I am currently listening to a focal utopia while writing this, and that is a picky headphone. The questyle manages to drive it with bravo, making it a real audiophile player on the go.