acryan does not offer that many advantages over the cheaper ones except:
- plays all common formats; a few others don't
- has regular firmware upgrades that you dwnld and diy; others may be same or slower or nothing - this is impt to keep playing latest formats
- good reliability , at least in my experience, never ran into problems with both units
- pohd has digital rca audio output - necessary for older avr/amps w/o hdmi input

if you're a light user, might feel it's not worth it. for mid-heavy users like me, i dun want a cheap unit that breaks down or keep getting bugged.
of course, there are costlier ones that are superior, i'm sure. since media players are still evolving, paying too much is not a great idea as well, imo.