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Digital Audio Player with mechanical controls?

post #1 of 6
4/23/10 at 9:19am
Thread Starter 
The sound quality of my iAudio 7 is great for my demands, especially thanks to its built-in semi-parametric equalizer allowing for an almost ideal compensation of the common sonic-balance issues of portable earphones. Its 16 GB flash memory is halfways large enough for the best tunes from my MP3 collection encoded at -V3 and -V4. 32 GB would be even nicer, though, as it would offer the space for my whole MP3 collection or alternatively the counterparts in -V0 with some minor restrictions.

Now what I'm looking for is a dedicated compact DAP (as opposed to a multimedia player) with similar features as the iAudio 7 and a comparable sound quality, but with conventional controls (joystick), because I hate touch controls for their unreliability. I want a player that can be mounted on the upper arm (or had in the pocket), especially for walking and jogging. So touch screens and large formats are a no-go.

I know, what I'm looking for is possibly a dying species. But is there any hope to find something like described above? The iAudio U2 and U3 with larger memory and the 7's equalizer would have been close to the ideal.
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post #2 of 6
4/23/10 at 12:12pm
Clip+ perhaps? Small, cheap, supports flac, can be rockbox, decent sound-quality, expandable memory slot and small.
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post #3 of 6
4/23/10 at 1:49pm
Thread Starter 
Yes, looks like the Sansa Clip+ is about the only choice nowadays. The 8 GB version with 32 GB memory card would be nice. How is the sound quality? Does Rockbox include a (semi-)parametric equalizer?
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post #4 of 6
4/24/10 at 3:22pm
Hi jaZZ
I use the clip v2&clip+ both are great little players.
I also have rockbox installed on the v2, it does have an excellent eq.
You can select frequency bandwidth and gain.
It has been a joy with the etys as i can now eq them without the use of my bulky passive unit.
Both players sound very good on their own and better when hooked to a good amp.
There are downsides to the rockboxing the clips.
People often talk about rockboxing them as if Rockbox was a finished piece of work.
It is not.
Rockbox cannot currently write to memory so many functions do not work or you need to save them manually in a config file [i.e eq settings]
I almost have to view using my v2 the same way i do using a record player, because it is somewhat manual in use..haha.
you can also get random stoppages that require a reset.

All that aside the clips are cheap tiny and punch above their weight.


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post #5 of 6
4/24/10 at 4:18pm
Sony S, E, and A Series might be to your liking as well. The SQ is fantastic, and the tactile controls really rock.
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post #6 of 6
4/25/10 at 10:34am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the answers! I think the Clip+ is a no-brainer, considering the price, the tiny format and the rockboxability.

Two more questions:
From a review and the product description (accessory) on a commercial site it seems that memory expansion is restricted to 16 GB. Is that true? I can't find any corresponding info on the SanDisk website or the user manual, though.
How about the shuffle function: Can you apply it to both the on-board and the external memory at the same time – to have full 24 (or better 40) GB covered by the shuffle mode?
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