[mralexosborn]

My Droid headphone jack is slowly falling apart so I am in need of an MP3/FLAC player.
It needs to be FLAC capable. I would like the best SQ possible. The cheaper the better. I will only be using IEM's with it (I think).

 

[djray]

I'm on the hunt for a new player as well.
 
I'm currently looking to get a Sansa Fuze or Clip+ with Rockbox enabled on it.
 
Pros: both are cheap and with Rockbox will allow you to play FLAC and anything on it.
Cons: Rockbox is still a work in progress for certain (newer) versions of Fuze and Clip.  So you might brick your player, but there's a slim chance of that happening.

 

[subszero]

Preorder the HifiMan 602

 
You'll be getting a RE262 IEM and a very very good player for 369 usd. You could sell the IEM on the forums (should be worth atleast a 100 bucks), so a net cost of 269 usd.

 

[Katun]

You mentioned it to have the best SQ possible. At that, I immediately think Cowon.
 
HERE is their website, you should go take a look around to see what you like.
 
I'm one of the many proud owners of one here on Head-Fi, and always will be an owner.
 

 

[mralexosborn]

I am thinking Cowon S9 or Sansa Fuze/Clip.
 
Quote:

Preorder the HifiMan 602

 
You'll be getting a RE262 IEM and a very very good player for 369 usd. You could sell the IEM on the forums (should be worth atleast a 100 bucks), so a net cost of 269 usd.

And by the way,
NO JUST NO, DON'T DO THIS TO ME!
 
Why can I only get 8GB version of the Sansas? WHY? WHY?! What MAN?!
...anyway...what MP3/FLAC player can handle higher impedance 'phones?

 

[Katun]

Quote:

Why can I only get 8GB version of the Sansas? WHY? WHY?! What MAN?!
...anyway...what MP3/FLAC player can handle higher impedance 'phones?

Well, I'll give you a bit of a happiness boost by saying the Sansas *can* go higher than 8GB. You just have to buy MicroSD cards for them, although that would be a slight pain in the butt.
 
Anyway, I would definitely go for the Cowon instead. I have the Sansa Clip and Cowon iAudio 7, and the iAudio 7 eats the Clip for breakfast. The Sansas are too simplified, and make it hard to really browse through your collections. I would almost get the a Sansa for the gym or something, as it's one of those players that is like the iPod shuffle. In which you just "play and go".
 
Besides, don't even think about using In-Ears headphones for the Clip, it seems to have quite the glitch. Or, at least mine did.

 

[mralexosborn]

I hate everything. All of you. Go away. I don't need to buy anything. I hate spending money. I hate thinking about spending money. Everything is so expensive.
 
...(but the Cowon S9 32GB is only $200 on Amazon!)
 
Damn you Head-Fi.

 

[Katun]

^ Be sure to visit Cowon's flashy website, and learn all about the S9. Believe me, after going through 'all the tabs' learning about it's features, I was ready to buy one myself!

 
*You've been warned*
 
And besides, not only do Cowon's MP3's sound spectacular straight out of the box with a flat EQ, but they also have a TON of nifty, high quality sound enhancement features. And believe me, they are A LOT of fun to mess around with, to see if you can make your song sound "more 3D" or have "deeper bass". It's a lot of fun actually, and I love Cowon's for that.
 
...Well, and the incredible sound of course!

 

[mralexosborn]

Quote:

^ Be sure to visit Cowon's flashy website, and learn all about the S9. Believe me, after going through 'all the tabs' learning about it's features, I was ready to buy one myself!

 
*You've been warned*
 
And besides, not only do Cowon's MP3's sound spectacular straight out of the box with a flat EQ, but they also have a TON of nifty, high quality sound enhancement features. And believe me, they are A LOT of fun to mess around with, to see if you can make your song sound "more 3D" or have "deeper bass". It's a lot of fun actually, and I love Cowon's for that.
 
...Well, and the incredible sound of course!

I DID read about. Oh no. Another on my wishlist.

 

[JamestheRipper]

as a cowon s9 user, get a bloody cowon s9. they arent particularly user friendly so i replaced the UI with squarescape (which is perdy and adds in a couple features in the option pop up, eg playspeed during a song, and screen brightness during a video). but ill tell you what. sound quality is incredible. screen is incredible. battery life is incredible. transfer speeds are good. weight is good. size is good. BUY ONE.

 

[Radek1]

I have Cowon D2+, 16 GB, I use it with Beyerdynamic DTX 100 and I´m VERY happy with it. I have never believed that portable music player could play so good. I use it just for music, not for video and I love it´s design too.
 
I had some troubles with using FLAC files as player could not recognise them. I made some googling and problem was solved just by renaming suffix from .FLAC to .FLA. Now it works perfectly.

 

[mralexosborn]

55 hours of music playback. :OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I need this, eventually. 

 

[Katun]

Yup, the battery life on Cowon players is outstanding. Better than anything else on the market.
 
My iAudio 7 claims 60hrs, which if phenomenal, although most battery life claims never meet up to real use.
 
Although, I have tested it. From fully charged, I hooked it up to my K701's for burn-in. The volume is around 35/40 (which sucks more battery) and they play about 40 - 45hrs. That is still pretty impressive considering I am playing them nearly at full volume, plus a lot of my music is ripped in 320kbps.
 
Excellent battery life indeed.

 

[mralexosborn]

Is the Audio quality on the iAudio 7 equal to the S9?

 

[Katun]

Generally yes. The iAudio S9 has BBE+ / JetEffect 3.0, while the iAudio 7 only has BBE / JetEffect.
 
Although those are "sound modding / enhancing" features. A lot of my music I listen to with a flat EQ, and no sound enhancements.
 
So playing straight out, I can find them very similar, if not exactly the same. iAudio 7 just had "improved" sound enhancement features.