[Aman]

I'm going to be a tricky one to satisfy... I'm in the market for a new MP3 player (the old iPod I happened to find in Chelsea finally broke down beyond repair last week) and want to get a really good one this time.

The following are requirements:

1. It must be able to play FLAC (properly, mindful of tags!)
2. It really should have a large amount of disk space (80+ gigs is preferable). I'm hoping to carry around a huge vinyl collection ripped to FLAC...
3. It should be usable and operational on not just Windows, but Mac and Linux as well.
4. It shouldn't be ridiculously expensive. Let's keep it under $450?

If the player sounds good, that's a bonus too. But this player will really be more intended for on-the-go listening, so the best-ever sound quality isn't essential.

I checked out the iAudio X5, which looks nice, but it can only apparently sort by artist/album etc. through use of RockBox - I definitely need to be able to do that. Now, I'm a huge proponent for open source software, but I'm not so sure about spending $350 on a 60GB MP3 player while relying on RockBox. If I cannot find a more suitable match for my needs, I'll make that jump. But I am not too well-versed on the hard drive MP3 market at the moment, so I'd like to see all of my options.

My little brother told me about this Korean company which sells iPod look-a-likes, and thought they may sell a multi-platform player I need. He wasn't sure of the company name, though. Of course, any suggestions would be highly valuable and appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Aman]

Bump?

 

[PachmanP]

Have you put any thought into a picking up a used iriver H340 or so and putting rockbox on it? It'll play flac then, but I'm not sure how that effects battery life, but I think battery life will be a problem with hard drive player with flac. You can also pop open the H340 an put in a 60gig or 80 gig hard drive, although the 80 is insanely expensive I believe.

There's the Toshiba F series that are again rockboxable for flac playback, but are only 20 gig I think.

You could also get a new ipod and rockbox that as well, or look into converting everything to apple lossless.

I'm not sure but I think the X5 is the only hard drive based player that will do flac stock. You could take a look at the flac website as they list all of the devices with support

 

[krmathis]

I am pretty sure you only have two options for a hdd based FLAC player.
1. An iAudio X5.
2. Rockbox + supported hdd player.

 

[Zanth]

Aman, I am in your boat too. Though I started with a Rio Karma, my player quickly died, then then second one died and so I bought a 60 GB iPod iPhoto (4th gen) and had been using Windows/iTunes for the past few years.

I now have 3 iPods (iPhoto, 8 GB Nano, new Shuffle) and all are formatted for Windows/iTunes. However I have really wanted to release myself from the dual booting scenario and for now, I won't sync with my Macbook Pro because it is stricktly a dev system. So what to do...

well about a month ago I test out Rockbox on the iPhoto (the only unit it will work on for the moment) and it is incredible. The interface can look exactly like the iTunes/iPod gui or one can choose a plethora of skins depending on the model/unit. Rockbox plays anything and at least on my version of the iPod it is rock solid. Drag n' Drop and that is it! Linux detects it as a usb drive, windows detects as a usb drive, mac detects it as a usb drive. Drag and drop and you have instant access to your properly tagged files.

What I don't like when using FLAC is the poor battery life. Rockbox destroys my aging battery. Using Apple's firmware I get about 8 hours of life...Rockbox with FLAC? 2 and a bit. I mostly use mine on a dock though so for the most part it is not a concern, but if you are on the go often...look for a player that is programmed to play FLAC vs. the Rockbox route.

 

[comen]

I think you should wait for the new cowon iaudio x7's 80gig version or you should continue with a new 5.5gen 80gig rockboxed ipod.

 

[faichiu]

iaudio X5 should be good for you.