With the new Cayin N3-Ultra, you get a reasonably priced yet capable portable music player based on Android.
The Cayin N3-Ultra comes from Chinese soil, which means the price is a bit lower than players with a similar feature set. Nice thing is, you can switch between transistors and tubes as power amplifier elements for the headphone output. In case you opt for transistors, that gives you a playing time of 12 hours on a fully charged battery. If you go for tubes, you will have more than 8 hours of playing time. The portable player weighs only 200 grams, so taking it with you is no problem at all. You can connect both balanced and unbalanced headphones to it.
Android
D/A conversion is handled by two AKM 4493S DAC chips switched in mono mode. To which, the Cayin N3-Ultra is controlled by Android and features a 4.1-inch TFT touch screen.
If you hurry (read: through May 31), you can order the player for a special introductory price of €598. After that, it will cost €649.