Hehe...I'll try.

I've had the HM-601 for a short time. My experience with it is, that I paid a huge sum of money for something that is essentially a dedicated music box. It lets you handle the music but what it does best it presents it to you beautifully. That's the thing, it only presents music, they do quite poorly being practical. The Ibasso has a very big screen, lots of connectivity, lots of codec support, but big size, heavy weight, low music playback time and some reports that the sound isn't up to expectations (although very good) considering the price. Then again, I haven't tried one, but with that price I'd rather have a custom IEM or a decent rig set up at home.

The HM-801, or even the 601 is the same thing. Beautiful music, but the software is like a piece of very thin sheet of glass. You'd have to be very careful or else, you'd have to restart the player, re-store every file you have in the memory card, or re-install the firmware. Let's not talk abut the big size. I had fun with the 601, but I learned the hard way (but very eye-opening) that reliability, the peace of mind of not having such a fragile firmware and one's definition of 'portability' is a must have consideration, when price is nothing.

My best PMP yet is the Teclast T51. Has a balanced mixture of great form, reasonable price, great sound and decent usability. In terms of sound quality alone however, it is still the HM-601.

Still pretty thick though, and it's 1mm thicker than the HM-601 I had, and putting it in and taking it out of a jeans pocket is a bit of a hassle. No doubt that the DX100 would be able to handle those hard to drive headphones with the power it can supply. Oh god now I have this sudden urge to try it out....this fantasy about how it will sound....this...this urge to....YOU'VE POISONED ME!

This is your trick isn't it?

Maybe they thought they could live with the bugs.
Yeah....do more with less. I want to be an automotive engineer, and I believe that to move forward in the industry that is what must be done. That's why I don't like hybrid vehicles (pfft, adding a motor to help another motor ). Also can be applied to audio engineering. I believe that makers should try and make as less ports as possible for portable players (come on, adaptors were made for a reason, and possibly a mechanical switch or something to switch between pure lineout and heaphone out while using the same 3.5mm port?), and also develop less drivers that can still fulfill the advantage of multi-drivers (I mean, really, we only have a pair of eardrums and we can still complain about multi-driver IEMs having less this, too much that, etc.). Don't wanna get much into that, it'll be off topic.

Cowon X7. Available in 120GB and 160GB.

I have no idea, and the X7 isn't exactly high tech either. Resistive touch screen that isn't accurate, read about it being a bit laggy, limited video codec support (no problem if audio is your priority), and some firmware bugs as well. Not to mention only barely pocketable and very heavy (over 200g). A mixed bag of reviews really. Others say its UI is customizable to the point of not being that annoying anymore, not steep of a learning curve, easy to get used to, literally days of playback time, and after calibration the touch screen can be quite accurate, and lag isn't all that bad. Other than that its SQ is highly commended. I think what I would do is, search for a forummer here who is selling it (I know of only one, MrJinggles), ask if they have any X7 in stock, and ask for a test run.

There is also another option, which is the Ipod Classic, but it cannot play FLAC, but ALAC (Apple lossless). I don't know of any other PMP that has that large a capacity.

If so your problem is solved! Get the Ipod then.

Sansa Fuze+'s touch pad control takes some time to get used to, and does respond incorrectly sometimes. Battery life however is better for the Fuze+, and the screen lets you display album arts and such and is quite alright under bright light. Why not get something in between like the Clip Zip? Doesn't have better or worse battery life than the Clip+ but with a bigger and better screen to let you see your album art and you won't have to squint your eyes as often.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Jul 14 2012, 01:58 PM

They should have a similar sound signature. One more thing though, people seems to report it having a slightly lower battery life compared to Clip+, so I may be wrong about the battery life on the Zip.
I've only had the Fuze+, but I hear people say it has the Sansa sound, and the Fuze+ sounded quite good paired with my PL50 and Radius DDM at the time. They all should sound similar to each other, with minor, and depending on the ears and IEM/headphone used, noticeable differences.

So for bigger screen, bigger and more ergonomic form, longer playback time, Fuze+.
For maximum portability, easy navigation and more tactile feel (it has buttons, better IMO than touch pad), the Clip+. Dunno about Zip but Rockbox is available for Clip+.
For displaying album art in a player as small as a Clip+, maximum portability, the Zip.