Don’t buy the 2023 crops of North America Sony DAPs given that Sony has given in to the volume restriction laws similar to EU volume capped laws. I believe this applies to the 2023 NA ZX707 and A306 models and newer. The 4.4 mm balanced output drops from 230 mW on the ZX707 down to just under 3 mw.
I imported a non-volume capped ZX707 version from Amazon.JP for about $150 in saving including a 4 days DHL express shipping fees for a total of $750. Their current flagship, NW-WM1AM2 and 1ZM2 released back in 2021, are not affected however.
There is nothing wrong about releasing a successive models as long as it is an improvements from the old generations and Sony doesn’t do this on a yearly basis. The ZX507 was released in 2018-19 and the ZX707 was released late of last year. Their signature DAPs are updated every five years or so. The first generation Signature DAPs came out around 2015-16 and the 1A/1Z MKII came out in 2021.
Please be open minded and give some of these new DAPS a try. I think you guys will really enjoy them. The sound quality is starting to approach a mid-end desktop equipment but in a portable form and that is great.
I really like my newly acquired ZX707 and I think it is the best one yet intern of price and performance ratio. I do recommend if u have the budget. If you don’t want to spend that much on a portable DAPs, check out used previous generation models. A used ZX300s, and ZX507s are around $250 and $350 respectively. I am not too concerned about the battery since I can DIY. Also, Sony often uses high quality Li-ion cell battery. My 2004-ish Sony X1060 still hold a full charge.
Of course, the cassette display screen below on my WMA1M2 and ZX707 does looks pretty cool to me.