Pioneer Almost Scales The Heights

FOR Neat presentation; good level of detail; fi le compatibility

AGAINST Lacks drama; some issues with older Mac OSs

Why buy a personal music player? You already have a phone that plays music, and who wants to carry two separate devices around? The argument in favour of dedicated music players seems tenuous – right up until you start listening to one. They just sound better than most phones.

Pioneer is looking to expand into this category and why not? The brand has an excellent stereo heritage, littered with enough quality kit to suggest it could challenge current class leaders such as Astell & Kern and Sony.

The similarities between the XDP-30R and our current favourite music player – the £500 Astell & Kern AK70 – are striking. From the overall shape to the positioning of the inputs and controls, they look very similar. The dimensions are a little different, but they are close enough to raise eyebrows. If the XDP-30R can match the Astell & Kern in performance as well as appearance, at a reduced price, then Pioneer is on to a winner.

Apple issues

Things start brightly enough. This is a well-equipped unit and will play PCM files up to 32-bit/192kHz and double speed DSD. MQA support is on its way, with a firmware upgrade expected by the end of summer. Streaming isn’t ignored either, with Tidal, Deezer and Tunein support built-in.

At 16GB, the built-in internal storage isn’t particularly generous, but it is augmented by two mini-SD card slots, each capable of a maximum of 200GB memory. That should be enough for most hi-res music fans.