[DaveBSC]

Second the D2. You should be able to find 2GB or 4GB versions on eBay at very low prices. Add a large capacity SD card and you've got all the storage you need, plus Cowon sound quality, excellent battery life, and a fairly robust amount of amplification available for such a little box. Most 32 Ohm phones should play very well with it.

 

[Young Spade]

PS: Thinking back on it I'd definitely recommend the T51/sflo2 over the Clip+. It has a much fuller sound and has more power for the slightly harder to drive phones (as well as a line out port). 
 
A wider soundstage and better instrument separation is great too. 

 

[jpancier]

T51/sflo2 is the way to go.  I had  a D2 that I loved, but the SFLO2 is just a better all around player.  Its line out is excellent, and its headphone jack will amp most any can out there decently, and stacks up well against the low end ibasso's and such.  Pairs well with my grado sr225's and ath ad2000's.

 

[upstateguy]

Quote:

Yes, the Clip+ but really, no point loading lossless on portables. Battery life + discernible audible difference + storage space = issues.

Nothing is like the Clip or Fuze. 
No reason to use FLAC files on a portable player..... 320 is plenty.
 
One of the advantages of a Fuze is that you don't need a LOD  ike an ipod because there's no analog stage,  it's all digital...

I use an 8 gig Fuze with an 8 gig card in my office to replace a CD player.  Refresh times are short and I never had a problem.
 
USG
 
 
Griffin dock purchased directly from Griffin for $15.

 

 

 

[plonter]

If you want to play flac files,I really don't recommend getting the clip+, it has a very poor battery life.     that's too bad because soundwise it is one of the best players in the market (the best i heard to date).     if you wouldn't mind going for lossy than i guess it will hold long enough.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

[alphaphoenix]

Quote:

Second the D2. You should be able to find 2GB or 4GB versions on eBay at very low prices. Add a large capacity SD card and you've got all the storage you need, plus Cowon sound quality, excellent battery life, and a fairly robust amount of amplification available for such a little box. Most 32 Ohm phones should play very well with it.

Third that.

 

[C4rl]

 
Quote:

Second the D2. You should be able to find 2GB or 4GB versions on eBay at very low prices. Add a large capacity SD card and you've got all the storage you need, plus Cowon sound quality, excellent battery life, and a fairly robust amount of amplification available for such a little box. Most 32 Ohm phones should play very well with it.

and a fourth
 

 

[plonter]

x5..great player!  got pretty much everything.

 

[Wrist-Fi]

 
Quote:

If you want to play flac files,I really don't recommend getting the clip+, it has a very poor battery life.     that's too bad because soundwise it is one of the best players in the market (the best i heard to date).     if you wouldn't mind going for lossy than i guess it will hold long enough.

 

Yeah, Sansa's original firmware for playing flacs is pretty lame for the clip+....maybe 8-9 hours tops, I only got about 7 hours before the battery got quite low.  Luckily rockbox is a lot better.  I've never timed it exactly but I fall asleep with flacs playing and wake up as many as nine hours later and the gage still reads over a third left.  14-16 hours has been reported for RB mp3 playback, and it wouldn't surprise me if flac playback was the same.
 
The latest RB has had write support for a while now and has been very stable for me.

 

[High_Q]

Quote:

One of the advantages of a Fuze is that you don't need a LOD  ike an ipod because there's no analog stage,  it's all digital...
 

Can you explain that?  What do you mean by no analog stage, its digital?  How does that not require LOD.  I am very interested this
 

 

[4DThinker]

I'll go against the grain here and suggest spending more now.   Get a Cowon J3.  MicroSD slot. Easy touchscreen access to your music.  Even if you don't care for videos, a big screen will display more files at one time, and you can select the one you want with a simple touch.
 
And when buying a larger device you get a larger battery, which in this case gets you 64hr music play on a single battery charge.
 
MicroSD content is indexed with the internal content.
 
My Cowon J3 is the best player I've tested yet. No reason to start low.  JMHO.

 

[Hero Kid]

Why bump a topic from last year? Do you think the OP is still trying to decide what to get ... 5 months later?

EDIT: Wow look at everyone jumping on the bandwagon...
 
Quote:

YGPM

 

 

[Wrist-Fi]

 
Quote:

Why bump a topic from last year? Do you think the OP is still trying to decide what to get ... 5 months later?

EDIT: Wow look at everyone jumping on the bandwagon...
 

 

 
 
Raiko hasn't posted back what he decided to do yet, so clearly he is still mulling it over. 

 
Maybe 5 years will go by and we'll never know. 

 
 
OT, but one of the best threads I can remember seeing about whether or not a guy would post back or not was over @ fark.com.  It referred to this video:  http://sn.im/trainmiss and a user named Snot Monster from Outer Space who posted on the thread before he got a chance to watch all 48 seconds of the thing.
 
You can't help but laugh at how lucky the guy who almost gets hit by the speeding train was, but the humor built around whether or not that Snot guy would ever watch the whole video was almost as good.
 
 http://sn.im/trainfarks
 
EDIT: Strangely, both of the above links were deleted recently, but I keep on top of these things so here they are again.  EDIT2: fixed it right like it was originally, & added the 70mph 7 inch near-miss screenshot below:
 

 

[chinook9]

What is a T51/sflo2?
 
When responding in threads like this, please consider your audience.  For someone who lives on head-fi "T51/sflo2" may mean something but to someone searching the web trying to get the answer to such a basic question "T51/sflo2" means nothing.  I have done a number of Google searches and I found nothing that helps.
 
I'd value your opinion but it does me no good because I don't know what equipment your referring to.
 
That's my $.02 worth.
 

 

[wordsworth]

Digital Audio players, google s:flo2 which is made by nationite or teclast t51 and you should get results