Head-fi help me (Hippo Box or Hippo Gumstick)

I'll say you should go with the Gumstick. Hippo Box is pretty good sounding, but lacks a volume control so you can't use it with line-out in the future. On the other hand, Gumstick can really drive most portable headphone very well and you don't need to worry about extra amping. It is just a simpler, more elegant solution.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ClieOS 

I'll say you should go with the Gumstick. Hippo Box is pretty good sounding, but lacks a volume control so you can't use it with line-out in the future. On the other hand, Gumstick can really drive most portable headphone very well and you don't need to worry about extra amping. It is just a simpler, more elegant solution.

x2

I used my Gumstick w/ the Ety ER4S.  Worked great, no separate amp needed.

Can you wait? My concern is firmware. Who made Gumstick, is it re-branded from Hisound? Will you ever get firmware update(s)? Their track record was..., some in this forum will not touch their product again. I am on the fence, once bitten...

To be honest, I won't put any stock on firmware update in such a small DAP. However, my Gumstick has never crashed since I got it (July 2010), so I don't see much reason to update its firmware anyway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ClieOS 

To be honest, I won't put any stock on firmware update in such a small DAP. However, my Gumstick has never crashed since I got it (July 2010), so I don't see much reason to update its firmware anyway.

Same

Quote:

Originally Posted by ClieOS 

To be honest, I won't put any stock on firmware update in such a small DAP. However, my Gumstick has never crashed since I got it (July 2010), so I don't see much reason to update its firmware anyway.

Rocoo A sounded a bit harsh, it made my ears tired after a while (Is it the same player as Gumstick, or not ?). T51 (S:Flo2) didn't sound good until firmware ver.2.0 ; I did not use it much until ver. 2.3. Without firmware updates, many players stuck as "beta" products; don't you hate that? Anyway, you can go to try it at Jaben; they didn't try to sell me anything I don't want.

No. Gumstick and Rocoo-A are two different DAP, down to the hardware. Gumstick uses Sigmatel solution while Rocoo-A uses RockChip solution (hence the problem with firmware as RockChip is inherently weak on the software side).

Now I don't understand. Rocoo A and B ceased to sell in China, they are now for foreign markets only. But, I have not heard any news updates about them; maybe soon?

My concerns still stand, new firmwares show a company's commitment...; oh, well, I should not expect too much from small companies. They try, and I should be happy about "beta"; although not perfect, it's good to have more choices.

There is long and somewhat complex story behind the it. First, the Chinese DAP maker 'Cube' makes the C30 for the Chinese market, HiSound then contracted Cube to co-develop a 'hi-fi' version of the small player called the Rocoo using HiSound. The housing is the same (with different color), the hardware idea comes mainly from HiSound, but Cube is responsible for manufacturing (= partially OEM). The agreement is, Cube will sell C30 in China while HiSound will sell the Rocoo oversea, but later on HiSound breached the contract (by selling Rocoo in China) and pissed off Cube (they actually started quite a few flamewar in various Chinese forums). In the end, HiSound agreed to follow the original contract and stop selling Rocoo in China - at least that is what I know. The Gumstick, as far as my understanding goes, is contracted to HiSound by Hippo and it is actually a modified version of Rocoo's (one of) original design by adapting a SigmaTel chip (same as C30) but use a Class-A biased output like the Rocoo, so you can say it is a half-blood b/w a Rocco and a C30. Cube, presumably is likely to be responsible for manufacturing as well, of course I can't really confirm that. Firmware wise, I think they all works on their own.

It plays FLAC fine as long as they aren't anything more than compression level 5.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by subxero 

yeah i'm waiting right now, still didn't order it

i heard somewhere theres a firmware issue when playing FLAC files, can anyone confirm this?

other than that gumstick is perect for me