I thought portable players had become extinct, but then I noticed in this review of a pair of professional headphones that the guy had tested the headphones using a portable player. Being an average music listener using my phone with Bluetooth headphones/buds, I'm wondering if there's any meaningful advantage to using portable music players like Astell&Kern or FiiO. Does the wired connection deliver tangibly better music quality?

So I'm currently using an old 4th gen iPod Shuffle for my music, but the 2gb of storage is just killing me, I'm using some 7hz Crinacle Zero 2 Iems if that means anything. I want something with at least 128 gb of storage or I can use an sd card, no internet or other apps, just a music player, and just drag and drop music onto it no problem. Physical buttons would also be nice, but not required. Preferably under $100, sorry if this is way too specific. Thanks!