I have a pair of old Altec Lansing iM716 (I think a rebrand of something by Etymotic). They were sold used to me with a broken cable, and they went through four more cables before I lost them. I've found them again in a drawer today without a cable, so I soldered one on and tested them.   And...

While digging in some old boxes I found my old CD/MP3 player, from way back before I bought my first serious DAP (a Creative Zen USB2 that changed my life). It’s a Samsung MCD-SM55. For the sake of nostalgia I burned a couple of CDRWs and I’ve set it up with a couple of amplified speakers that I...

I've been using a pair of old CX300s as my main 'phones for years now, going through several cables, until during the last cable replacement the solder joints on the tiny leads going down to one of the coils failed and I was unable to restore contact. Result: dead headphones.   Now, before I...

I have a pair of CX300, old model, that I use constantly. They're by far my favourite 'phones, having beat in my personal graduation far more expensive ones - so far, they're the only ones that have provided the sound I want without the need to use the equalizer. Problem is, I'm not what you'd...

I may be able to acquire the player in the title (capacity: 32 gigs), and its 'phones I already have (the noise canceling is made to work on this player). The player has a single line on the screen from having had its glass slightly cracked, but everything works fine. Now, I have no use for...

I've been sold a pair of the titular headphones. I wasn't told they had a noise canceling feature, and was expecting normal 'phones; I was therefore surprised at seeing the 5-pole jack. However, I was not sold the pod that does the noise-canceling calculations and has the standard 3-pole jack...

I've bought a new smartphone (a Nokia 5230, for the record), and in the interest of reducing the amount of clutter I cart around in my pockets I've decided to get a 16GB microSD card for it and use it as my main music player. My intention is to use low-bitrate files (Ogg quality 1 or equivalent)...

My hearing is good for some things, but not for others. For isntance, I can't for the life of me hear the difference between mp3/320 and mp3/128. Some would call me hearing-dumb, but I consider it a blessing, because it allows me to recompress my music in ogg/80/96 and enjoy it just as I would...

I've seen these on sale over at DX. According to this they look like the real deal - small gap in the 'phones, proper packaging, no cable-wrap doodad. Would you say they are original? I'm always in need of cheap canalphones to give to unenlightened friends who use those awful earbuds, but the...

How do you fix a Cowon iAudio 7 with a busted LiPo battery (it actually had a hole in it) without an identical replacement, and retaining the spectacular battery life? Like this: (the ugly volume switches are part of another repair - the previous owner had broken the original ones...

I just got the 'phones in the title second-hand at a good price. The only problem is that the jack is broken. Instead of replacing the jack, I'm thinking of opening the IEMs themselves, tossing the original cable and stupid little doodad in the middle (which only flops around and adds...

I bought for very little money a 7 that, in the words of the seller, turns off spontaneously and for no apparent reason, and often enough that listening to anything is an exercise in frustration. When it does play, though, everything works - in other words, the memory and audio circuitry are OK...

I'm deeply in love with my Rio Karma (modded with a compactflash card and additional switch by yours truly), but there's no denying the thing is huge, by today's standards. Looking for potential replacements of smaller size, and having already ruled out the Carbon (reduced interface, no support...

I know you guys are more about quality than about price, but maybe there's still someone who knows this. I've had a look at various eBay auctions about these players, and I particularly like the TA5-16R (I'd buy it here though, since that seller seems better; the product seems the same). I...

I mistakenly got two Carbons on eBay, thinking they supported Ogg Vorbis. One was to be used normally, and the other as backup if something went wrong with the first one (the auction had a really good price). Turns out they don't support ogg, but I like the little things so much I might be...

I found in a box my old Sony MZ-R30 and my somewhat less old MZ-R90. During many, many hours of heavy use the R30 shed most of its screws, so I had to keep it together with duct tape. Back then I didn't know that the upper head needed to be secured to the cover in order to work properly, so...

I've tried time and time again to make my ideal player out of a 1st gen iPod mini, an A-Data 16GB compactflash card and RockBox. Sadly, the RB interface feels like molasses, and often completely refuses to play music. Suspecting the card I swapped in a known good microdrive, and it got even...

I have several thumbdrives I was given as presents in the course of time. Prices for flash memory have dropped enough that selling them all wouldn't be worth the trip to the post office to send them, so I was wondering if they could be used in a portable player. We already have players...

I seem to remember the good people behind RockBox finally managed to crack the problem of the decreased battery life on the ipod when compared to the original firmware. Is this actually the case, or did I dream up the whole thing?

I'm thinking of buying one of the two, but I'm unsure which one. The M6 has a larger screen and better battery life for surprisingly little more money, but I'm unsure the larger screen is actually a good thing. I'd only ever use it for music, so I have no use for video or image viewing; a...

I'm watching an auction for a XS100 with a broken microdrive. I happen to have a 4GB microdrive, CFII format, sitting around, and would love to swap it in, but I don't know if the XS100 uses CFII drives, or ZIF, or Cornice or what have you.

I'm looking for something like a Meizu M3 or M6, but with 16 GB of memory. It'd be even better if it had a SD slot for future expansion. A 8gb player with a slot capable of accepting SD cards in excess of 8GB would be equally good, as long as it could access both memories at once. It MUST...

A friend of mine broke her old Zen mp3 player, and now she needs a replacement. Her list: - absolutely no ipods (please don't start discussing this) - 30 gigs minimum - video, pictures, radio and all that are not required; she needs it for music alone. - decent audio quality, but it isn't...

The tips of my Sennheiser CX300 are showing signs of wear. I'm gearing up for homemade foam tips, but I want something rubbery I can fall back on if I turn out to suck at making the foam tips and/or if I don't like the result. I had a look at eBay, and I can't decide whether I should get the...

I've been suggesting the M3 and M6 to people, but mp4nation is now dead and I've been asked where else to get it at the very cheap prices that site had. Any ideas? Thanks.