I got a Sony High Rez player that cost more than your budget, sounded amazing, but was very tiny—the size of a cigarette lighter-BT never worked, and worst of all, the slot for the SD cards is so ridiculously small that I can’t extract the one that I have in there, not even with surgical tools. So I can play about 30 albums on it. Sony makes another model in your price range, but obviously I’m not recommending it.
I needed a new phone recently so I got the LG phone that was on the cover of Stereophile ( actually, it’s successor). I’m burning albums to the SD card as I type. BT works well, Sound is good if perhaps not as dynamic as the Sony, and I would rather not mess with two devices. The phone cost about a grand but I rationalize it as both a phone and a high Rez music player.
This is probably not the response that you wanted, but maybe you can learn from my mistakes...
I needed a new phone recently so I got the LG phone that was on the cover of Stereophile ( actually, it’s successor). I’m burning albums to the SD card as I type. BT works well, Sound is good if perhaps not as dynamic as the Sony, and I would rather not mess with two devices. The phone cost about a grand but I rationalize it as both a phone and a high Rez music player.
This is probably not the response that you wanted, but maybe you can learn from my mistakes...