Best portable mp3 player??

Well, for controls in pocket or out, incredible sound, beautiful displays, and lot's of interface options, I would go with the Cowon S9, or J3... and perhaps the new D3 whenever it matures.

iPod Nano 6G, iPod Touch 4G.

No eq = Nano

Eq from appstore = Touch

Great players, tasty Apples:)

Which is the better all around player between the S9 and the J3?

BTW, Stevenswall,

Are you still enjoying your KDE250's?

Quote:

Originally Posted by nonsupremous 

Which is the better all around player between the S9 and the J3?

They're the same except for their shape, and the J3 has expandable memory, better battery life and a smoother UI. The differences in sound are incredibly small and not worth noting.

What about Hifiman players? 

Im going to say its the Sansa Fuze with rockbox and custom LOD for its vast EQing possibilities and crossfeed, as well as the Hifiman HM601 for its power.  

Of the DAPs I own (J3, iPhone 4, Rockbox'd Clip+ and HM-601) the HiFiMan has the best sound signature for my tastes. It sounds solid, powerful, musical and smooth with all of my IEMs.

Overall the J3 is the better DAP though, thanks to the slimmer profile, lighter weight, EQ and the vastly superior battery life.

I do love the sound from the HM-601 though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wanderwithbeats 

The J3 is an Android based player which blocks access to the Android market. The J3 from what I've read has a little bit better EQ. I'm still wondering if Cowon is like the Apple iPhone, popular and overpriced because it's something of the special kind. I don't know firsthand but I've read a lot on the topic because I am looking for a more specialized, dedicated mp3 player. 

No it isn't.  The J3 is the standard Cowon Flash interface.  The D3 is the Android based player.

As for the OP...the J3 is the best portable right now.  It bests the S9 because of the expandable memory, the smoother interface and the buttons on the sides are a lot easier to use than the S9s.

sansa's clip and fuze are highly regarded around here especially for their selling points. Apple provides a good amount of options for you as well as I'm sure you know already. The S:Flo2 is an interesting player with great sq not so great ui. Fio is coming out with the x3 which seems to be a very interesting portable audio player. Then you got the Hifiman's which are obviously more expensive but sound great from what i hear. Overall lots of options, comes down to a personal preference on sq battery life memory and general shape and size of the player, good luck.

The cowon j3 after extensive research I have concluded to be the best SQ  portable FLAC/MP3 player. You can also expand memory via buying extra Micro-SD cards;

Use media monkey to get similar to itunes functionality with it also :)