There's lots to love here including an Android 10 operating system with a touchscreen that's smooth and responsive, a punchy, controlled and detailed sound and a premium build. You’ll get the best results using decent headphones and playing high-resolution files – lower-quality headphones and compressed files lose a lot of the detail, to the point where you may as well be using a smartphone. However, this is a capable hi-res player worthy of your consideration if your budget doesn’t stretch to the more premium Astell & Kern SR35 player above.

It supports a huge range of formats, including DSD(DFF, DSF, ISO), FLAC, WAV, AIFF, ALAC, APE, MP3, WMA, OGG and DCF. Music sounds brilliant and with Bluetooth, you can listen on a range of different devices. Although there's no Wi-Fi streaming available. Where the NW-A306 is let down is not in its music-playing skill, but slight niggles with its all round usability. During our testing, we found that the menu could be a little unresponsive, the battery longevity would vary and it surprisingly sounded like it struggled when playing a standard 128kbps audio file, which all together let down our all-round experience just a tad (well, by half a star to be exact). But there’s no denying that the positives vastly outweigh the negatives here. If you’re looking for something to keep you company on long journeys, we’d opt for something with a longer battery life that also has more storage space. The Sony NW-E394 below should last you 35 hours, while three of the devices on this list come with a microSD slot for you to expand the amount of storage to accommodate even the largest of music collections. Can I use my MP3 player to stream music? For many people the convenience of MP3 –you can fit more into your device's storage, streaming uses less mobile data and you don't need a really good internet connection – outweighs the loss of sound, especially if you're listening on the move. But MP3 is a fairly old tech now, and there are better options: Lossless Audio and Hi-Res Audio. And if you’re keen on the idea of hi-res audio, you’ll need to shell out on a dedicated player to get the most out of the latest hi-res albums. What is the best type of MP3 player?How about a customisable PMP with interchangeable DAC modules? That's the idea here – and we liked it so much, we gave it What Hi-Fi? 2021 and 2022 Awards. The SE180 is the third model in Astell & Kern’s near-flagship A&futura range, following the inauguralSE100andSE200, both of which gainedAwards from this very publication in 2019 and 2020 respectively. This feature is really helpful if you’re listening to the radio while walking, running, cycling or doing any other physical activity. Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. No, DAB radio doesn’t require an internet connection. You use it just like you would listen to FM radio.

This could be a dealbreaker for some people, but if you only listen to music through streaming services such as Spotify and Tidal, these music players aren’t for you. For a few years, we were recommending the Astell&Kern AK70, which did offer Wi-Fi connectivity. Sadly, it’s now out of production. READ NEXT: Best running headphones The best MP3 players to buy 1. Sony Walkman NW-WS413 Waterproof 4GB: Best MP3 player for workouts These radios are popular among people staying in hospital for extended periods of time as well as people with solitary jobs, for example postal workers.Whatever your budget, you will be surprised at what you can get for your money these days. Every player here supports MP3 and AAC files of course, but we can all do better than that in 2023. All of the models above also support high-resolution audio files, from 24-bit FLAC and PCM files and even DSD. If you live in the UK, you will normally be able to receive all of the popular BBC and commercial stations such as Radio 4, Radio 5 Live, TalkSport etc. as well as at least 10 extra stations you wouldn’t get on an AM/FM. We are always impartial and do our utmost to make sure we are hearing every product at its very best, so we try plenty of different types of music (and music files) and give each plenty of listening time (and time to run in). We use a range of headphones at levels likely to suit a certain player, too. Isle of Man, Isle of Wight, Northern Ireland and the Scottish Highlands) may take longer to reach you.

Always look for the latest model of digital radio as it will have the most up-to-date technology. For example, you should avoid buying the Roberts Sports DAB2 and instead buy the newer Roberts Sports DAB5. The interface is easy to control. Tap through options using the touchscreen, and select the music you want to listen to. It could be more responsive, but you get used to it. Battery life is around nine hours, which isn't amazing, but not terrible either. Others might not have a great deal of space on their phone if it's an older model, so want to store music elsewhere, and some people might not want to use up battery or data when they're on the move. The Sony player is adept enough to turn its hand to various genres and can even discern the differences in file qualities, while all sounding comfortable to listen to for long periods. It's a pleasingly detailed and clean performance. In fact, there’s a familial throughline from the high-end NW-WM1ZM2 player to the A306 in terms of how mature and evenly balanced it sounds. It can also play at loud volumes without ever sounding harsh or confused. We'd like more dynamic punch and drive to songs that need it though; the Sony can sound a touch reserved when a song demands outright fun or aggression.While digital radio is growing in popularity, many people still find they can get better reception on AM/FM radio. We make sure to test each product against its chief competitors too, so you can be sure that if we say so, the product is the best bet for the money. We live with these players for well over a week and run them in religiously so that the components have 'bedded in' before we commence our tests, and we don't finalize our testing until we are certain of the sound quality. This is a small, light and stylish music player with a simple matchbox-like design and a big, wide screen. It's an upgrade on Cowon's previous MP3-player model, this time with a volume dial, Bluetooth and more features.

There are even MP3 players here that can double up as a DAC to enhance the sound between your smartphone/laptop and headphones/speakers. Some have built-in access to streaming services, too, while others have even more functionality that mirrors a smartphone's (for better or worse). As the name suggests, Lossless Audio doesn't sacrifice any of the musical information: the successors to the WAV format used in CDs, which is also lossless, use more advanced technology to take the audio information and make the file smaller without compromising on quality. There are several versions of Lossless Audio including Apple Lossless, FLAC and WMA Lossless, and as you'll see from our guide above you'll often find that the best MP3 players support at least some of those formats. MP3 players won't suit everyone, many prefer the convenience of having all of their music on their phones, but there are plenty of reasons why an MP3 player is a great idea for some people. Is MP3 quality as good as CD?If you pair one of the devices in this buying guide with a set of the best headphones you’ve got the ultimate in premium, portable music: high-quality music that you can take on your travels. You should also consider recharging options: would you rather charge the radio via USB or use batteries?