[Janomin]

So, my long suffering Zune 80gb has suddenly developed a rather large crack on the screen and is generally in pretty poor shape, so it needs to be replaced. I've dabbled with a cMoy BB, and I'm rather interested in putting together a half decent portable rig of some sort to improve sound quality while I listen to music at work. Problem is I have no idea really what I'm looking for.
 

1. Never been impressed with apple gear. However! I do have a Musical Fidelity M1CliC which has an app allowing it to be controlled by an apple device. There is no Android alternate and I don't have any apple devices. A touch would therefore possibly be of interest. I am however reluctant to use itunes, because it's awful, and I can't seem to see anything conclusive that states Ipod Touch 5g's can use an external dac/amp? Would a 4g with dac/amp be a better alternative?
2. I have around 75gb of music at the moment. mp3's mainly but some FLAC (or some lossless alternate, whatever zune ripping gave me I believe).
3. Streaming via Spotify would be extremely handy.
4. Current headphones for portable use are Klipsch Image x10's however they are a bit battered and are falling apart, will almost certainly change these to Musical Fidelity EB-50's at some point.
5. Music is very varied. Rock. Pop. Rap. Dance. Pretty much everything.
6. While I am based in the UK my parents are in the states till the end of the month so I could get this sourced from the US and brought over, avoiding the stupid EU volume regs. Haven't thought up a budget, $500 maybe?

 
For what its worth, my home system is Mr Speakers Mad Dogs, which I love, going into a Musical Fidelity M1HPA...
 
Does anyone have any recommendations?

 

[gelocks]

If you need Spotify, then it will be either an iOS or Android MP3 player... I personally am down with a Cowon C2, 4GB using a 64GB micro SD formatted to FAT32...

 

[Janomin]

Talk about out of the loop. I seem to remember looking at Cowons in the past and seeing something about issues with Win 7 64 bit, which is what I'm using... Am now wondering if I shouldn't be looking at things like the Astell and Kern AK100 or iBasso DX100 and do it all in one rather than seperate DAC/AMP.
 

 

[HFAUDIOPHILE]

I will recommend the Samsung Galaxy Player 4.2, Sony Z, F Series walkmen, Cowon X7, X9 for better soundquality but if you buy Tablet like iPad Mini(great sounding yet loud), Nexus 7, Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7inch(loud and clean sounding), Sony Xperia S(great sounding), Kindle Fire HD(amazing soundquality) and add AMPs/DAC in chain then soundquality will realy improve and they will act as remote control with lots of apps and some has micro sd card slot to expand storage.

 

[scuttle]

1. While I am based in the UK my parents are in the states till the end of the month so I could get this sourced from the US and brought over, avoiding the stupid EU volume regs. Haven't thought up a budget, $500 maybe?

 

 
I've never heard of a player where you can't just set the region to USA and avoid this problem.

 

[scuttle]

Quote:

Talk about out of the loop. I seem to remember looking at Cowons in the past and seeing something about issues with Win 7 64 bit, which is what I'm using... 

 
That seems to be FUD:
 
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45535

 

[gelocks]

Quote:

 
I've never heard of a player where you can't just set the region to USA and avoid this problem.

 
If players are manufactured over there (such as the Archos ones), you cannot avoid it (as far as I know...)

 

[davidcotton]

Quote:

So, my long suffering Zune 80gb has suddenly developed a rather large crack on the screen and is generally in pretty poor shape, so it needs to be replaced. I've dabbled with a cMoy BB, and I'm rather interested in putting together a half decent portable rig of some sort to improve sound quality while I listen to music at work. Problem is I have no idea really what I'm looking for.
 

1. Never been impressed with apple gear. However! I do have a Musical Fidelity M1CliC which has an app allowing it to be controlled by an apple device. There is no Android alternate and I don't have any apple devices. A touch would therefore possibly be of interest. I am however reluctant to use itunes, because it's awful, and I can't seem to see anything conclusive that states Ipod Touch 5g's can use an external dac/amp? Would a 4g with dac/amp be a better alternative?
2. I have around 75gb of music at the moment. mp3's mainly but some FLAC (or some lossless alternate, whatever zune ripping gave me I believe).
3. Streaming via Spotify would be extremely handy.
4. Current headphones for portable use are Klipsch Image x10's however they are a bit battered and are falling apart, will almost certainly change these to Musical Fidelity EB-50's at some point.
5. Music is very varied. Rock. Pop. Rap. Dance. Pretty much everything.
6. While I am based in the UK my parents are in the states till the end of the month so I could get this sourced from the US and brought over, avoiding the stupid EU volume regs. Haven't thought up a budget, $500 maybe?

 
For what its worth, my home system is Mr Speakers Mad Dogs, which I love, going into a Musical Fidelity M1HPA...
 
Does anyone have any recommendations?

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing+Microsoft+Zune+80GB+Screen/1485/1



Oh and if you like your klipsch and it's the cable that's the issue, try emailing btg-audio to see if they can recable them for you.
 
Cheers

 

[scuttle]

Quote:

I will recommend the Samsung Galaxy Player 4.2, Sony Z, F Series walkmen, Cowon X7, X9 for better soundquality but if you buy Tablet like iPad Mini(great sounding yet loud), Nexus 7, Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7inch(loud and clean sounding), Sony Xperia S(great sounding), Kindle Fire HD(amazing soundquality) and add AMPs/DAC in chain then soundquality will realy improve and they will act as remote control with lots of apps and some has micro sd card slot to expand storage.

 
You've heard all of those through decent headphones and claim they all have the same SQ as, say, the Cowons? Because I have heard rather then opposite about some of those. Eg people sending the Nexus back for poor SQ:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/616125/google-nexus-7-tablet-tegra-3/75
 
...and I've seen comparative reviews saying the Nexus's sq is better than the Fire's. I'm not saying these people are right and you are wrong, just "Could you please be more explicit?"

 

[Janomin]

Quote:

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing+Microsoft+Zune+80GB+Screen/1485/1



Oh and if you like your klipsch and it's the cable that's the issue, try emailing btg-audio to see if they can recable them for you.
 
Cheers

 
Thanks, to be honest the Zune software has been bugging me for a while, and fancy upgrading to something with a bit more quality - it's always been a bit of a compromise using it in the UK as it was never supported over here. From what I can tell from looking into the klipsch is that they can't be recabled, something to do with the way its connected to the drivers but I could be wrong.
 
You'll also have to excuse me for being somewhat sceptical over the Cowons and Walkmans, when I think of how much the Zune was at the time and the quality it has, would these newer players really be any improvement over what I have? I also feel slightly silly looking into them as I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 phone, which surely is much the same, if I plonked in a big micro SD card?

 

[davidcotton]

Fair enough.
 
I had similar issues.  I had ye olde iriver 120 when it first came out.  Every player I've had since has felt like a sidegrade in comparison soundwise anyway.  Looking at the state of the market now if you don't want apple is pathetic.  I can't talk as I have a touch (for music)and a classic (audiobook only)but the iriver still holds a place in my heart.  All I ever wanted was an upgraded version with bigger capacity and slightly nicer ui and would have been set!  My one still holds a five hour charge from the original battery!
 
Anyway enough nostalgic rambling, good luck with the search.  If all else fails there's always the sansa clip plus anyway