Help needed. Which player to buy?  

Quote:

Originally Posted by treecko2694 

Ok, I want to buy a new player. I'm planning to get it in June/July, so there's plenty of time to make a decision.

 

I want a good SQ and expandable memory. I don't really care about videos, Wi FI, etc. since I'm planning to use this player JUST for MUSIC.

 

The IEMs I own are the Klipsch Image S4...

 

Budget of $200 (the less, the better)

 

Help me out people! If it's needed, I could also buy a portable amp...

From everything I've read, it is hard to beat the Cowon D2+. I just ordered one for about $145 on Amazon, it has 16gb built in memory, plus takes SD cards. I ordered a 32gb card for an additional 40 bucks. It has a pretty powerful output at 74mW, so it can drive phones better than most portables. It supposedly has a killer battery life of over 50 hours. At that price, it was a no-brainer given my needs. One more thing I like is that it plays FLAC natively, and has a mode where you can just drag/drop you music tree to the player. Fan-freakin-tastic - now I don't have to maintain a separate ALAC tree for the iPod.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by treecko2694 

Ok, I want to buy a new player. I'm planning to get it in June/July, so there's plenty of time to make a decision.

 

I want a good SQ and expandable memory. I don't really care about videos, Wi FI, etc. since I'm planning to use this player JUST for MUSIC.

 

The IEMs I own are the Klipsch Image S4...

 

Budget of $200 (the less, the better)

 

Help me out people! If it's needed, I could also buy a portable amp...

My set up is a 4g clip+ with S4s and it sounds fantastic.  I also have 2 additional 2G SD cards.  Very small setup, easy to carry around.......to the gym and when you are out and about.  I use it at my desk at work.

Quote:

Originally Posted by treecko2694 

Ok, I want to buy a new player. I'm planning to get it in June/July, so there's plenty of time to make a decision.

 

this topic is irrelevant if you are planning to get it in June/July..

thats half year away, and by then there will be new Daps to consider.

fiio x3 will be out (planned release by march) with dedicated line out and digital out + sd card memory.

ipod classic might have stable rockbox by then which will make it very attractive price/ hdd ratio wise.

and god knows what other new DAPs will be out by that time..

Quote:

Originally Posted by treecko2694 


When a product has just been released, the prices are way too high...plus, I'm not an Apple fan.

I suspect fiio X3 should be in your price bracket as they said they will try to make it affordable for all..

as for not being an apple fan, well thats your call. though once its rockboxed, I really cant see why that should matter as you will be free to bypass itunes, use flac and other formats, and have custom EQ options to tweak the sound. plus the advantage of 160gb (no extra money for sd cards). as well as it being a well established DAP with good battery life....I dont have a clip or fuze but from what I have read here on head-fi quite a few people put ipods sound as equal to clip and fuze when all are un EQ'ed. only when using EQ they have advantage over ipods..but yeah, its popular to be anti apple here on head-fi....

FWIW - I currently have all lossless on my iPod Touch in ALAC format. I average 3 CD's per gigabyte using this format. That's not too bad.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by treecko2694 

Any other suggestions? Would an mp3 file at 320 kbs be enough to show the FiiO X3's potential? Beacause loosless formats are way too large to carry around in a memory card...