Foobar2000 proves that a good mobile music player does not have to be expensive at all. (it’s free) Hi-res is also no problem!
Foobar2000 is an old acquaintance from the PC-platform. It has been running for years on Windows-machines as the no-nonsense music player with lots of possibilities. Just about every musical file format is supported, including hi-res. In the meantime, the software has made the leap to mobile platforms as well. You can find the app in the software stores of Android and iOS/iPadOS. A version of Foobar2000 has also been released for macOS. The desktop versions of Foobar2000 can also be used as a cd-ripper or file-converter, should you need one.
Many options
As far as the mobile versions of Foobar2000 are concerned, the no-nonsense user interface used here is a relief. When you launch the app for the first time under iOS/iPadOS, your iTunes music collection, if any, is immediately imported so that it can also be listened to. The app has extensive setup options for both Android and iOS/iPadOS. A DSP module includes things like a normalizer, equalizer, Meier crossfeed, resampler and more. Very practical is that you can access DLNA servers directly from the app. This allows you to play shared music from, for example, a NAS or specialized music server.
To make the most of the resolution and samplerate of hi-res tracks, an external DAC (portable or not) is often necessary. If you don’t have one, it will be downsampled to the maximum quality a device supports. And as promised, Foobar2000 is free, always nice.