Well said, Miikerman!
I don’t think SanDisk will ever enter the High-End market or serve explicit audiophile demands. SanDisk is and will remain associated with ultra-compact players for a mass market. And from what I get higher sound quality needs larger electronics components with higher voltage (e.g. DAC), thus larger housings for better heat dissipation (and it’s not about output power in the first place), all of which would be reflected in a higher price.
So – although SanDisk players still stick out among the mass of ultracompact players in terms of sound quality – SanDisk’s now main goal seems to be to remain competitive in view of smartphones used as MP3 players. I highly doubt that this will work out, the less so as some smartphones meanwhile have reached similar sound quality and functionality. And I doubt that there are people who decide between smartphone and MP3 player on the basis of the price difference.
I for one have decided to go for audiophile players (FiiO) which are still portable, even for exercising.
