The best MP3 players of 2025

Audiophiles have long looked down on digital music because the sound quality is significantly worse for listeners with golden ears of discerning taste. The development of lossless file formats (such as FLAC) and cheap enough multi-gigabyte storage made portable high-quality music a reality.

At this point, there are really only two major players in the high-end portable music space: Astell & Kern and Sony (where the Walkman brand still exists). We have used earlier versions of each brand, but not the current models. Astell & Kern players they start at $1000 and are only for true enthusiasts.

If you’re the kind of person who has hard drives full of uncompressed music audio files — and you can hear the difference between that and relatively low-res MP3s and AAC files — then be sure to pair one of these players with your wired headphones of choice .

Almost all music streaming services now offer lossless or high bitrate options; these are almost all the big players, from Tidal and Qobuz to Amazon and Apple. (Spotify Hi-Fistrangely, it remains a no-show.)

If you like what you hear, consider upgrading to a decent headphone DAC (it’s a “digital to analog converter”) like Audiofly Dragonfly or iFi Audio Go and a serious pair of wired headphones. Then you’ll have a solid audiophile option that’s good for the road without the need for a stand-alone music player.