snowyweston, I think the PMP world zeitgeist is that the flagship in sound quality will often also have everything else packed in, unless you leave the PMP realm and go for an IC recorder-misused-for-playback, or the AMP3.
The price you pay is what the companies want to charge you for that degree of sound quality. If you insist on music-only in this day and age, you will find yourself surrounded by low-end players that have inferior sound quality. Let's say something like the Sansa Clip (plus). It's no doubt excellent, but between the Clip and every other flagship (the other 4 players on ABI's list), I'm not sure the Clip will be an absolute equal to them. It's up to the individual to say if your ears don't mind the differences. Plus none of them are significantly bigger than the HD1.
Being an owner of a working HD1, I think I can imagine you looking for a direct replacement. In theory you could get a Cowon D2+ or Creative Zen, the physical size is similar, and you can expand them to the 20GB you need for cheap. But those are mid-range players, and a lot of us who think we can hear the difference like to go one step up, and get one of those other 4 on the ABI list, none of which are as expensive as the HD1 was in its days! (I got mine used in Japan for $80)
The price you pay is what the companies want to charge you for that degree of sound quality. If you insist on music-only in this day and age, you will find yourself surrounded by low-end players that have inferior sound quality. Let's say something like the Sansa Clip (plus). It's no doubt excellent, but between the Clip and every other flagship (the other 4 players on ABI's list), I'm not sure the Clip will be an absolute equal to them. It's up to the individual to say if your ears don't mind the differences. Plus none of them are significantly bigger than the HD1.
Being an owner of a working HD1, I think I can imagine you looking for a direct replacement. In theory you could get a Cowon D2+ or Creative Zen, the physical size is similar, and you can expand them to the 20GB you need for cheap. But those are mid-range players, and a lot of us who think we can hear the difference like to go one step up, and get one of those other 4 on the ABI list, none of which are as expensive as the HD1 was in its days! (I got mine used in Japan for $80)
