[sid_]

I'm looking for a portable audio player that has over 80GB of hard disk space, will play FLAC files and supports dragging and dropping of files rather than using proprietary software to copy music over.

As yet, the only solution I can think of is to buy an old Ipod 5.5 80GB and install Rockbox but I hear that the Rockbox battery life is terrible.

Are there any other players that I should be considering?

Please don't turn this into a "Why on earth would you want FLAC on your portable media player" thread; I have my reasons.

 

[Hayduke]

What do you consider terrible battery life?

There have been some moderate improvements in Rockbox on iPods in the last year, and there are rumors that the devs are on the verge of a substantial improvement.

My 5G iPod gets easily 10 hours playing FLACs. Good enough for me

 

[LDMES]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hayduke /img/forum/go_quote.gif What do you consider terrible battery life? There have been some moderate improvements in Rockbox on iPods in the last year, and there are rumors that the devs are on the verge of a substantial improvement. My 5G iPod gets easily 10 hours playing FLACs. Good enough for me

Mine 2.

 

[blessingx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hayduke /img/forum/go_quote.gif My 5G iPod gets easily 10 hours playing FLACs. Good enough for me

Yes, that would be my definition of 'terrible battery life' in 2008.

And haven't those verge rumors been around for a while now? To each their own of course. If you went the iPod route, considering one of lossless strengths is zero loss transcoding (and if you don't need replaygain support), I'd say FLAC to ALAC is less painful than losing 1/2 your battery.

Course you could go WAV and pick up a few of these. Not great battery life either, but if you have a few you could switch.

 

[The Pieman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blessingx /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yes, that would be my definition of 'terrible battery life' in 2008. And haven't those verge rumors been around for a while now? To each their own of course. If you went the iPod route, considering one of lossless strengths is zero loss transcoding (and if you don't need replaygain support), I'd say FLAC to ALAC is less painful than losing 1/2 your battery. Course you could go WAV and pick up a few of these. Not great battery life either, but if you have a few you could switch.

I have to concur with this. I went Rockbox on my iMod. I have now removed Rockbox from my iMod. Rockbox seems to be a battery pig no matter what device it is on, iRiver H140 or an iPod. I have now reverted to ALAC on my iPods. I use FLAC on my home setup and on my Cowon DAPs but ALAC on the iPods. I just use DbPoweramp to copy all my FLAC to ALAC.

cheers
Simon

 

[wanderman]

my iriver h120 with rockbox gets exceptional battery life over the stock firmware. I get 18hrs with my 3.97 v2 mp3s. Lossless just kills the battery life simply because it requires more hdd seeking. The iriver players don't really have an exceptional battery base so when a lossless codec cuts the battery life in half it is much more noticeable. The iriver h1X0 and H3X0 are platforms where rockbox excels over the standard firmware in every manner.

 

[sid_]

Interesting. 10 hours could be enough battery life for me.

For the rockbox users, could you comment overall on your experiences with the rockbox interface etc.? Is it a pleasant experience to use compared to the standard firmware?

I realize that FLAC isn't exactly a must on a portable player, but I'd rather not have to maintain a FLAC copy and an MP3 copy of everything. I certainly wouldn't want to convert all the FLAC to a propriety format such as ALAC.

I'm still leaning towards the rockboxed iPod. I think I may try and find a friend who has one and ask if they'll let me experiment with it before buying.

Is the Cowon iAudio X7 out?

 

[Zanth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by imported_sid_ /img/forum/go_quote.gif I realize that FLAC isn't exactly a must on a portable player, but I'd rather not have to maintain a FLAC copy and an MP3 copy of everything. I certainly wouldn't want to convert all the FLAC to a propriety format such as ALAC.

This is exactly how I feel. At this point, since sizes are just getting larger (particularly desktop hdds) I don't want to have an mp3 library when I have the FLAC files already. Transcoding to ALAC and perhaps again to mp3 seems ridiculous to me. So far this is exactly what I have been doing but it is a pain. Now with cool gadgets like the Pico, if I'm on the go, I want FLAC because that DAC is going to really get the most out of the music files. A high quality ultra sensitive IEM thrown in there and one could argue that having FLAC files is more important in this arena than with a big stereo rig. There is no doubt that the IEM's are going to pick up all the inadequacies of the files faster than speakers will (save for soundstage collapse.)

 

[LDMES]

Quote:

Originally Posted by imported_sid_ /img/forum/go_quote.gif Interesting. 10 hours could be enough battery life for me. For the rockbox users, could you comment overall on your experiences with the rockbox interface etc.? Is it a pleasant experience to use compared to the standard firmware? I realize that FLAC isn't exactly a must on a portable player, but I'd rather not have to maintain a FLAC copy and an MP3 copy of everything. I certainly wouldn't want to convert all the FLAC to a propriety format such as ALAC. I'm still leaning towards the rockboxed iPod. I think I may try and find a friend who has one and ask if they'll let me experiment with it before buying. Is the Cowon iAudio X7 out?

I really like the Rockbox on my iMod and btw converting all my files from FLAC to ALAC would be way more annoying and time consuming(wasting) than the effort it takes to plug in my 5.5G iMod to recharge every 4-6 days (note I use my iMod about 2-3 hours a day 5 days a week), and I just recharge my amp at the same time.
I love the drag and drop functionality of it and the interface is easy to use, makes complete sense to me and I personally like that I can customize it with a wps of my choice...and obviously the fact that I can play mty FLAC files is the #1 reason. I have no need for coverflow, so that doesn't temp me. While I know that Rockbox will do playlists, I grew up listening to records/A-tracks/tapes and then cds, and I just prefer to pick an album and listen to it from start to finish, so I can't really talk on how that compares from iTunes.
All in all Rockbox was the right solution for me and I am very happy with it.

Also battery-wise I look at it this way:

My Treo which I use from work had to be recharged nightly since I use it so much.
My Laptop also needs to be charged more frequently when I am on the road.
So having to charge my iMod and amp the above stated every 4-6 days is really not at all that painful or an issue for me.

But like the poster above to each his own, and for me it's Rockbox all the way!

 

[JimSmiley]

x2 on Rockbox.

I just got one of those refurb. 5.5 gen Ipods on Wednesday. Put Rockbox on it Wed night, and I haven't looked back. I had rockbox on an old Archos FM recorder for years with no trouble at all.

.flac support>gapless playback>open source..hard to go wrong.

It's new to me, so it's hard to comment on battery life, but I've been listening in the car and at night--about 5 hours for two days and I haven't had to recharge yet.

Oh yeah....you can play Doom while you jam....I dig it.

Also, LDMES turned me on to the Illusion Case..very cool..thanks man.

 

[LDMES]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimSmiley /img/forum/go_quote.gif x2 on Rockbox. Also, LDMES turned me on to the Illusion Case..very cool..thanks man.

Glad I could help. Just doing the Head-Fi pay it forward thing.

 

[hiccamer]

I have used Rockbox on both my 5.5g iPod 80gb and Nano. I find it much more pleasant on the flash based 1g nano, but still agree that the benefits outweigh any issues.

 

[manaox2]

Pacemaker

Pacemaker

120 gb, flac, $$$

 

[Hayduke]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blessingx /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yes, that would be my definition of 'terrible battery life' in 2008. And haven't those verge rumors been around for a while now? To each their own of course. If you went the iPod route, considering one of lossless strengths is zero loss transcoding (and if you don't need replaygain support), I'd say FLAC to ALAC is less painful than losing 1/2 your battery. Course you could go WAV and pick up a few of these. Not great battery life either, but if you have a few you could switch.

Compared to say the 52 claimed hours for a D2, it isn't very good, but like LDMES, I don't need that kind of battery life. I'm in total agreement with him on the use of my personal electronics. I have to charge all the others, so recharging the iPod isn't really that big an issue.

Since most of the files on my iPod are FLACs, it is a tiny subset of my entire music collection. My moods change often, so I am constantly changing out files on it which means it's charging. I guess it's just not that hard for me to plug it in every night like I do my pda phone. Actually I don't even plug it in everyday. I can go 2-3 days with the amount I use it, but more often then not, I just plug it in when I get home at night. Why is that so big a deal?

The only time I need more battery life is when I go backpacking. I don't take the iPod anyway then. I take the wife's Nano. It's lighter, holds enough songs, and has longer battery life because there is no hdd spinning. Of course I have to sacrifice SQ a little as I take MP3s, but music in the wilderness is quite a luxury. I can live with that

If buying several players is a possible solution, why not mulltiple iPods? That would overcome the battery issue too, right? I don't think that's ever a reasonable solution

 

[Febs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hayduke /img/forum/go_quote.gif There have been some moderate improvements in Rockbox on iPods in the last year, and there are rumors that the devs are on the verge of a substantial improvement.

Rumors no more. Major battery life improvements were implemented about 2 weeks ago. I benchmarked my iPod 5G at over 15 hours (playing MP3s) during the testing process for these improvements.

As for Pieman's comment that Rockbox is a "battery pig" on the iriver H140, this is just flat-out wrong. Rockbox exceeds the original firmware's battery life on the H100 series, and has for several years.