Which Portable Music Player

[ukjeyaraj]

Hi All,

Looking for a portable music player. I thought it will be easy, to just hit some online site and buy it. But got confused :sad:.

Initially I read few threads and thought of buying Sansa Fuze+ 8GB. Then read few reviews where users complain about the touch control pad not so good and slow boot time. In local market I could find Transcend MP 870 8GB for Rs.3200/- but not so good review about its sound quality.

I will be pairing it with one of the following

1) Philips SHP2700
2) Sennheiser PX-80
3) Sennheiser PMX-80

Is sansa fuze+ really bad?

Any other suggestions?

Following are basic requirements

1) Support for FLAC
2) External Memory support
3) Album Art
4) Good sound quality

Currently I am looking within a budget of Rs.5000/-, but can increase if better options are available.

 

[ukjeyaraj]

Any suggestions?

 

[iaudio]

If that's all that your require, go for the Sansa Clip Zip. Get an 8gb version and add a 32/16gb card to it! You are good to go.Excellent sound quality, rugged, cheap, compact and light. The interface is easy to use and so are the controls.

 

[ukjeyaraj]

Thanks for the info. i feel display in sansa clip zip is too small.

 

[iaudio]

He he, I know! But I find it perfectly apt for the purpose. A 2inch display is anyway not going to help with watching videos or the like. So might as well cut down on weight and cost with a functional display.

Edit: You could get a Cowon C2.

 

[metalmickey]

Search in the used market and you might get lucky with an ipod classic 80gb at 6.5-7.5k max always worth it.imho the old gen ipod had a better audio chip than the present more detailed/bright ipod classic!.i own both and prefer the 80gb over 160gb

 

[metalmickey]

Also try ear phones from sound magic to pair with the pod!.worth the money and cheap too!.

 

[ukjeyaraj]

He he, I know! But I find it perfectly apt for the purpose. A 2inch display is anyway not going to help with watching videos or the like. So might as well cut down on weight and cost with a functional display.

Edit: You could get a Cowon C2.

I will not be using it for video. But need reasonably good display to see ID3 details and album art in a decent size. BTW from the spec Sansa clip zip has only 1.1 inch display.

Cowon C2 not available online in most of the sites. However available here

Buy Cowon C2 4GB Mp3 Player - Best Mp3 Players India

Also found Cowon D2+ 8GB for Rs.7500/-

How good are these Cowon models and which one is better?

Search in the used market and you might get lucky with an ipod classic 80gb at 6.5-7.5k max always worth it.imho the old gen ipod had a better audio chip than the present more detailed/bright ipod classic!.i own both and prefer the 80gb over 160gb

Will ipod play flac files?

 

[lake1988]

Nothing beats an Apple iPod in terms of sound quality..very clear and clean audio with very deep bass..
iPod won't play flac but there is an apple lossless format..from iTunes you can convert music files to apple lossless format which is playable in iPod.

 

[iaudio]

lake1988, Really? Nothing?

 

[lake1988]

lake1988, Really? Nothing?

I'm only talking about portable music player here..own one myself...and apple headphones do add very crystal clear bass to it..

I'm talking about from my experience only.

They got a Realtek chip as audio decoder which produced very good audio...though a bit over priced...

But iPod is also very reliable and built quality is excellent.

 

[edge111hussain]

Nothing beats an ipod? u kidding me right.. everything beats the pod...

op, get a sansa or cowon. You wont regret it.

 

[ukjeyaraj]

@lake1988

Thanks for the suggestion. But I need flac support as I will be using the same set of files in my squeezebox touch and other equipments too. If apple can be tweaked in some way to play FLAC files, then I may consider getting a used one as suggested by metal mickey

@edge11hussain. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[edge111hussain]

I personally use an s9 and the clip+. I do prefer the s9 cause i love the BBE sound Sig, but if played without any equalizers, the 2k clip+ is a very tough competition to the S9 too.

In ur case i feel you should look for an old or used sansa fuze. Rockbox it and u r good to go

 

[metalmickey]

iaudio-lol...leave the laker alone!...but if he had shifted like me from something like an c.zen to a ipod classic with the huge GB it would sound heavenly and it did for me!...and conversion to alac aint a tough nut....
@jeyaraj-my suggestions are for the ipod 80gb classic...has its own signature sound which I love...after shifting from creative to pod...never needed anything else...with good flacs the sansa or the manza's midget memory cant take more than 10-15 albums and you need to constantly plug it in to the pc....IPOD CLASSIC GO FOR IT!

 

[iaudio]

lake1988, what other players have you listened to other than the iPod?

ukjeyaraj, Some older gen iPods can be rockboxed to play flac. But again there wont be SD card slot. As metalmickey, the older iPod Classics are a good deal. The issue here is you have to take care as it is a hard disk based player. And you will feel the weight in your pocket.

As for the Cowons, I had a Cowon D2 a while back. The C2 is quite similar to it. Its a good player. SQ is good. You can really play around with equaliser settings. But the GUI is not very well designed and the resistive touch is not very nice now that people are used to capacitive touch screens. The only other option is the s9 or j3, both of which are more expensive. They have a few cheaper models like iaudio 9, but I think that lacks sd slot.
Getting an older Sansa Fuze may be your best bet as hussain has pointed out.
Sony players afaik dont play flac either. I dont know of any good options from Creative as of now.

 

[kaushik]

This one:

is good for audio enthu.

many people are not buying media players soon android cells did good job for media.carrying extra brick for audio is not preferred.
smaller biscuit size players:
after using touch screen player in my cell will never use biscuit sized kansa-sansa,sony ,philips

 

[iaudio]

metalmickey, Personally, I am also planning to get an iPod Classic to complement my Sansa Clip.
But for the rough and tumble of life in good ol' India, the Sansa gives me peace of mind. Low maintenance, robust, clipped to my shirt pocket alongwith my Soundmagic pl30s.

The ipods sound good to excellent, but I just dont agree with blanket statements that " They are the best".( I have used iPods too btw, Nano, shuffle, Touch, Classic etc). Peace.

 

[edge111hussain]

Btw, off topic here, i do have an ipod classic 80GB. But the battery is gone. ordered one from the states and its arrived but, i just cant get the damn thing to open. it just wont. I spend a good 2 days trying to open it but it just wont budge. Currently it looks like a trucks run over it. will post pics in the evening hoping someone will be able to give me tips on how to.
Any idea of a repair center apart from apples own that can open it for me?

Coming back to topic, since ipod classic is mentioned here, and i do own the 80 gb too, my unbiased view is s9/J3 > sansa clip+/Fuze > ipod classic 80gig 5th gen > ipod touch...

If you do intend to connect it to an amp, then an ipod is of gr8 use cause of its connector. You can use the ipod dock connector as an audio out and the quality there is better than a audio jack to audio jack wire (sorry aint too familiarized with the exact terms).
The bbe is simply awesome, imho, even a rockboxed sansa cant match the bbe settings of a cowon s9. I really have no idea abt the sub 10K players of cowon. If on a budget, get the fuze.

The Sflo2 mentioned above is of a different league altogether mate. It too supports BBE. It truely is an audiophile level player, BUT, the batter life is piss poor and the UI plain old sucks. If you can live with that, get the sflo2.

 

[kaushik]

ipod,sansa more or less neutral
sony:dsp enhanced ,good for bass junkies..
add skull candy HP( skull shaker bass) + sony your head will have much better
bloodflow... may help when u are looking hair