Quote:
Originally Posted by grndslm
I remember seeing those back in the day. I don't think they were my cup of tea back then, and they still don't look like it today.
How's the sound quality on that thing BTW? Any sonic improvements with Rockbox, or was it all just interface? I'd prolly rather have that than a Gigabeat, but a Gigabeat would actually be easier to find nowadays.
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Oh, I wasn't completely serious in recommending it, if only because it's so big and bulky compared to iPod-sized players and because it only has hardware support for MP3 (no WMA/AAC/FLAC/OGG/WAV... nada.) Hence the
But it is built like a tank. Mine was pretty beat up and had been taken apart and put back together a number of times before I finally ebayed it. And it was essentially a portable USB 2.0 hard drive, too, which was very handy.
The sound quality wasn't bad at all, actually -- the Recorder also had coaxial digital output. I don't think it was necessarily better immediately with Rockbox, but if I recall correctly, they were able to tweak the sound chip on it in ways that the original firmware didn't. It had a couple of neat sound features that aren't available (AFAIK) on other Rockboxable units -- auto volume (good for audiobooks in the car), and a bass boost that works by emphasizing higher harmonics of lower bass frequencies, tricking your brain into thinking you're hearing notes that your speakers or headphones can't actually reproduce.
Yeah, so like I said, I was only half-way serious in recommending it.