Just recently got this Hifi Walker H2 and so far I like it. Stock UI was trash but Rockbox solved that issue. At first I was skeptical of needing a dap with how good phones are these days but I'm satisfied. This thing sounds so good and is powerful enough to make my 6XX sing. Plus the customization of rockbox really appeals to my tinkering side.
So what do you guys think about DAPs? Do you prefer one to other music solutions or do you not see the appeal?
I mainly use my phone with a cheap DAC dongle along with a Walkman DAP that I got a great deal on used. There is not a lot of differences from the sound between them, but I use the walkman DAP when I 1) Don't want to get distracted by anything other than music, 2) Want to use a bluetooth earbud/headphone that supports aptX/LDAC codec, 3) Want a built in EQ that applies to all music apps (the Sony Clearaudio+ feature is also nice in some situations), 4) I admit I love seeing the tape player screen saver when using the Sony music player, 5) the expanded audio options when using my Sony Linkbud S. 6) When I want to save battery life on my phone.
So having a DAP is not a must have, but I do sure enjoy having it available as an option.