Wanted better SQ rather than Bluetooth connectivity so I got this,
FIIO M23 DAP
I’m blown away by the sound quality though my mere humble system,
I bought a JM21 recently for use with in-ears. Replaced an iBasso DX170.
Yup, About every fortnight I’m on the train back and forth to London accompanied by my Astell & Kern AK380, a 1TB Micro SD card full of music, and a pair of Sennheiser HD600 minis (PX100 mk1 
).
I also have the piggyback amp, but I don’t really use it - certainly no need with the Senns, maybe more necessary with the Amirons or proper full-size HD600s.
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Have you tried it directly into your system and compared it with your streamer?
Yes, I have. It’s pretty good, in a sort of well mannered hi-end way, but not so Naimish and not as groovy as the Core and Naim DAC.
Sound-wise my favourite DAP is one of my Ponoplayers. their sound can vary though quite a bit from example to example, and you do need the firmware to be up to date. I had 5 through my hands and the one i have kept sounded by far the best. With HD600s in balanced mode the sound can be really entrancing. However, it’s a pig to use, with a tiny screen, with poor battery life, and the rubber coating goes sticky. I do love it though…
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Astell and Kern SP2000 here. Really capable device. I had the AK Kann Alpha before, and like Richard I used the additionsl amp pack. I found that it boosted quality with IEMs and my various headphones but the SP2000 doesn’t benefit as far as I can tell.
Had a couple of Fiio devices and prefer the AK sound signature. Has seemed more neutral in general to me.
Bruce
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Is there any way I can transfer my Core rips to my Astell&Kern?
I’m not familiar with A&K, but presumably you can hook the storage device up to a computer and transfer music files to it? The computer should be able to access the Core music store in order to do this.
The only issue would be if you have CD rips saved as WAV. The A&K almost certainly won’t be able to read the metadata unless you have ripped to FLAC, and the hobbled software in the Core will not allow you to convert WAV to FLAC.
As @ChrisSU notes, if you hook your AK* up to your laptop you should be able to drag and drop** from your Core stored files to your AK player.
*Android app required which opens up when you connect a switched on player
** You choose where you want to place the file, you can create your own folder / sub folders. This copies the file and the original stays on Core.
Hopefully this makes sense…if you need anything else then I can later today look at doing some screen shots.
I have an older FiiO M7 which I use in my car via Bluetooth. A 256 GB micro card (the largest the M7 can handle) holds about 10,000 songs ripped from my Core. Because I chose wav for my ripping the artwork was missing on the FiiO until I used the SongKong program (on the 256 SD material) to restore them for this application.
It’s a fun and flexible little player, and it can shuffle play all 10,000 songs (!) keeping me from boredom.
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Thanks - yes, I have been using the Android app to transfer files from iTunes to the A&K. Similarly I have rip a few problematic CDs on my MacBook and added them to the download folder on the Core. However, I have been assuming from previous comments in the forum that the Naim rip involved a proprietary element that made it non-portable. I’ll give it a try.
Thanks - they are in FLAC so I can try. I explain my hesitation above in my reply to David.
The CD rips are portable, except for the WAV metadata, but as you have used FLAC there should be no problem.
OK, thanks - I must have picked up that WAV was not portable, and generalised.
I rip to my Core as WAV so I tend to do FLAC rips on my PC as well to make life easy for portable use. It’s also one more back up layer, which is never a bad thing…