"If anyone reads this post I'm sure loads of people will tell me that my problems are all my own making and if only I invested in an iPhone all my problems would go away. Well you know what? APPLE IS A SYMBOL OF PRETENTIOUSNESS AND IGNORANCE - YOU DO NOT EVEN KNOW HOW YOUR PHONE WORKS - I DO NOT HAVE TO PAY A TAX TO APPLE TO LISTEN TO MY MUSIC."
— Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?
Cash, grass, or ass, nobody rides for free.
You can pay the "Apple Tax" for a working system, and as someone who's written low-level audio software: A working system with the lowest-latency, least horrible (not nice, but least horrible) audio APIs in the industry. An iPod touch is still sold with 128GB for $299, which compares favorably to the $500 CD player with 10 seconds of skip protection I had before iPods.
Or, if this is just going to be a home system, how about buying a real stereo system with an amp, and play through that?
Or you can pay with a pile of wiring and an ugly box under a cheap CD player.
Or you can commit to spending the next decade of your life on low-level software and audio hardware trying to make Android audio that doesn't sound like a backfiring Chevy. Nobody else has succeeded, but maybe you'll be the one.
I love these things where someone creates a problem for themselves and then blames THE MAN for it.