Long story short, I love taking my music wherever I go, but my hard drive is really taking a big dip in space because I have an iPhone, meaning I have to convert what I want to listen to into M4A, essentially doubling the size of my music folder, and my phone being 32 gigabytes isn't going to cut it.

What do you all recommend as the best FLAC portable music player? As for budget I'm looking for anything within the $200 range, but willing to spend more if needed for your recommendations. Any other info I need to give you all I'm more than happy to provide

One word: Fiio.

Yep the Fiio is probably the best bet. It plays FLAC and doesn't have the price of an Apple player (thought doesn't have all the functionality as well). They are a good alternative to an iPod when you just want a high quality basic music player.

EDIT: There have been several generations of the Fiio, so you might be able to find an older model cheap, but even the current ones that will do what you want are less then $100.

Also could using any android phone recent - can playing .flac after about Android 4