A pocket music player in a CNC-machined metal body, with a click wheel under a 2.4-inch screen. It plays the files you load onto a card, and nothing else.

Fosi Audio makes headphone amps and DACs, and the DAP Neo is that expertise in an iPod’s silhouette. The body is 97 by 47 by 10.6 mm and at most 75 grams, with an anti-glare glass back. Below the screen sits a tactile wheel, with buttons along the side. The company says the interface skips deep menus; the screen shows what is playing and little else.

Inside is a Cirrus Logic CS43198 DAC feeding a 3.5mm single-ended headphone output rated at 129 mW. The player reads MP3, FLAC, WAV, APE, M4A and DSD files from a microSD card, expandable up to 256GB, so a lossless library fits in a pocket. Fosi quotes up to 12 hours per charge. The listing offers 16GB or 64GB card options, starting at $79.99, and the box includes a USB charging cable, two screen protectors and a manual.

The limits are the point. There is Bluetooth, but only the basic SBC codec, so wireless headphones will not get high-resolution audio from it; the wired jack is the real output. Fosi lists no Wi-Fi and no streaming, so music has to be copied over by cable or card, which suits someone who owns files and not someone who rents a catalogue. The 320 by 240 screen is small by phone standards. Fosi’s page says little about the software: playlists are mentioned in passing, and gapless playback, equaliser and favourites are not listed, so check before assuming them.