Reddit reviews iBasso DX50 HD Studio Mastering Quality Music Player with WOLFSON WM8740 192kHz/24-bit DAC [Full USA One Year Warranty from Authorized iBasso Distributor]

The amp is fine with my 598's with the volume approaching about 75%. Both only 50 ohms, the fiio should handle it fine. The sound quality is crisp. The headphones you use are probably the bottleneck to worry about first.

Fiio MAKES DACs. Their portable DACs pretty much rule the budget market. So I'd hope they know a thing or two about making them. I've heard no glaring differences between the X1 and my fiio e10K. There is also an on-board equalizer feature so you can experiment with that if you want to alter the sound.

I think it's great. They have already released at least one new firmware update so there should be constant improvements moving forward. I'm not familiar with a creative zen but after years of my ipod classic there are definitely some little things to be desired with ease of use for the X1. (accelerating click wheel scrolling comes to mind first. Some other menu browsing quirks)

But it gets the job done. Very simple and straightforward. Drag and drop. Artist/genre/album/file etc. Perfect size. There is no other competetion worth noting at $100 I don't think. It will be easy to share with someone since you can easily swap out micro SD cards. Let me know if you have any other questions, I've had one since it dropped.

The other competitor for double the price is the iBasso, although I've never used one it looks awesome.

Depending on her preferences of form factor I'd recommend the Fiio X1, Fiio X3 iBasso dx50, and Sony Walkman High-Res.

They are all comparable in audio quality and it all comes down to form factor and buttons really. The Fiio X3 can work as a standalone DAC for your PC as well. The iBasso dx50 has a touchscreen, and replaceable Galaxy S3 battery while the others all just use buttons. The battery life of the iBasso and Fiio are all around 10-15 hours while the Sony claims 30-50 hours depending on Hi-Res audio or MP3s. The Sony comes with 64GB of built in storage while the X3 has 8GB and the X1 and DX50 have no built in memory but all have micro SD slots you could expand storage easily using these. Also the Sony has Bluetooth for connecting to speakers if your sister needs that.

The UIs:

Fiio X1, Fiio X3, and upgraded ui, iBasso DX50, Sony.

Ah okay, thanks for the recs! I won't be buying a new pair of headphones right away so hopefully I'll get to explore more before doing so.

If you care to humor me some more, any thoughts on hifi audio players such as the iBasso DX50?

when i bought DX50 a few years back it was like $240 shipped from China. don't seem to be in production anymore. i've seen them sell for about half that in head-fi.org for/sale forums and you can probably find someone who will ship to EU. otherwise i see iBasso has one called the DX80 now for $360 but i have no experience with that one.

edit: also found DX50 for sale at Amazon

edit: check out this forum to learn about other high end DAP

http://www.amazon.com/iBasso-DX50-Mastering-Authorized-Distributor/dp/B00J6RVQJM

Supports all file types.
Internal memory and expandable memory.
24bit.
192kHz.

Fiio x5 is amazing as well.

I suggest reading some reviews:
http://www.head-fi.org/products/category/digital-audio-flac-mp3-players?sort=rating