Hey, guys - long time lurker, first time poster. I'm probably not as hardcore as you all (yet), but I'm a lot more sensitive to the quality of my music than the average Joe with an iPod and stock buds and proud of it 
I picked up a Zune 30 back when it first came out because I was psyched about the reports that its sound quality was better than an iPod. I mean, sure, there were lots of products with great sound out there, but I was certain that something from a big company like Microsoft would eventually get mainstream support.
Well, the Zune never caught on, but it's given me several years of (mostly) good service regardless. Their updates have tacked on a lot of great stuff since 1.0 - I've got wireless sync, games, and other little extras that I didn't have back when I bought it. Unfortunately, the Zune software to this day is still horrible. It can't see perfectly good MP3s I place in my library and it often errors for no apparent reason. So does my Zune, for that matter - it's begun to restart itself at random and I'm pretty sure it's reaching the end of its useful life.
I thought it would be pretty simple to find something comfortable to use for a decent price since touchscreens are in vogue. Whereas before you didn't see left-handed devices because they would have had to be physically different, making a touchscreen left-handed is as simple as including it in the software. TomTom's GPS units have this option, for instance, so I thought I'd see it available in plenty of MP3 players.
No dice! I have yet to see any touchscreen that has a left-handed interface option. They're all blatantly right-handed. Good MP3 players with physical buttons, like the Walkman, have physical buttons along the right-hand side. I don't like how the Fuze/Clip sound, so they're out.
So what's left (no pun intended)? Am I looking over something? I'd like something that:
1) Can be used comfortably with either hand
2) Has enough capacity & battery life for a rapidly expanding collection of classical FLACs
3) Is relatively compact (this won't be used for video/pictures)
4) Doesn't lock you in to specific software a la Zune
5) Costs $200 max
...because I don't see a whole lot out there. I have a pretty good idea which IEMs to get for classical music - I lost my Sennheiser IEMs, which is why I'm using old iRiver earbuds for now - but I'm at a loss for a player.
I picked up a Zune 30 back when it first came out because I was psyched about the reports that its sound quality was better than an iPod. I mean, sure, there were lots of products with great sound out there, but I was certain that something from a big company like Microsoft would eventually get mainstream support.
Well, the Zune never caught on, but it's given me several years of (mostly) good service regardless. Their updates have tacked on a lot of great stuff since 1.0 - I've got wireless sync, games, and other little extras that I didn't have back when I bought it. Unfortunately, the Zune software to this day is still horrible. It can't see perfectly good MP3s I place in my library and it often errors for no apparent reason. So does my Zune, for that matter - it's begun to restart itself at random and I'm pretty sure it's reaching the end of its useful life.
I thought it would be pretty simple to find something comfortable to use for a decent price since touchscreens are in vogue. Whereas before you didn't see left-handed devices because they would have had to be physically different, making a touchscreen left-handed is as simple as including it in the software. TomTom's GPS units have this option, for instance, so I thought I'd see it available in plenty of MP3 players.
No dice! I have yet to see any touchscreen that has a left-handed interface option. They're all blatantly right-handed. Good MP3 players with physical buttons, like the Walkman, have physical buttons along the right-hand side. I don't like how the Fuze/Clip sound, so they're out.
So what's left (no pun intended)? Am I looking over something? I'd like something that:
1) Can be used comfortably with either hand
2) Has enough capacity & battery life for a rapidly expanding collection of classical FLACs
3) Is relatively compact (this won't be used for video/pictures)
4) Doesn't lock you in to specific software a la Zune
5) Costs $200 max
...because I don't see a whole lot out there. I have a pretty good idea which IEMs to get for classical music - I lost my Sennheiser IEMs, which is why I'm using old iRiver earbuds for now - but I'm at a loss for a player.
