Cube C30 is the best!

Cube C30 and hippo gumstick is basically the same(inside and out).
The gumstick has an amp in it powerful enough to power just about anything portable(and as proved by a forumer here, even some passive speakers as well). And volume isn't all that it can do. The sound distorts very little at high volumes, if you have the hardware to handle it.

Comparing both, the gumstick is more focused on sound than anything else, so yeah you get some bugs here and there overall.

The sony is quite robust inside out but has more gimmick. I believe it has noise canceling.

Battery wise, Sony wins because the class-A amp in the gumstick drains more power(around 8 hours of playback).

So it goes down to what you want. Ease of use, popular sound sig...Sony.
Sound quality with not much else...the Gumstick.