[IWalker182]

the IHP-120 I think needs a stronger output as well...as my karma just barely powers my DT880s and 271s to a passable level (certainly doesn't sound awesome...but good enough for airplane or hotel room use) and that other stuff you mentioned...and FLAC support.

 

[SpoonMan]

Quote:

Originally posted by austonia the mechanical buttons of course! sold my 3rd gen shortly after purchasing it.

This issue isn't cut and dry...some people love the touch sensitive interface (like me) others don't...it's more a matter of preference then saying one is better then the other. The touch sensitive design does have the advantage of being less likely to break though

 

[austonia]

Quote:

Originally posted by SpoonMan This issue isn't cut and dry...some people love the touch sensitive interface (like me) others don't...it's more a matter of preference then saying one is better then the other. The touch sensitive design does have the advantage of being less likely to break though

agreed, it's all personal prefernce, of course.

The touch buttons should theoretically be more dependable, but they were too frustrating for me. My old mechnical-buttoned Pod has taken a lot of abuse and still going strong.

 

[pkasting]

For all you guys wanting an (easily user-)replaceable battery -- remember that that will probably add to the size of the unit, as well as the manufacturing cost (and thus the end-user cost). That's not to say it's a bad idea, I'm just reminding people there are always tradeoffs

. Heck, my ideal DAP senses what I'm thinking and feeling and plays the exact *right* song for that moment, but I can't have that. Oh wait, that's less a tradeoff issue than a "the tech doesn't exist [yet]" issue.

 

[Edwood]

Huge hard drive storage capacity.

Monkey's Audio support.

Digital output, preferrably optical.

-Ed

 

[wolfen68]

Okay....you said "perfect"...right?

-Waterproof
-Shockproof
-Folder OR ID3 tag organization
-Instant "On" because it runs off of all memory with power off memory retention. No Hard drive!
-100+ gigs of memory
-replaceable battery
-Full Drag and drop file management support
-Supports all the required formats
-Wireless connectivity
-Small
-long battery life
-lineout and digital out
-High quality headphone out (built in PPA or better?)
-Voice recognition for searching and other functions
- ....and it comes with a real set of headphones (I suppose Ety's or Shure's would suffice as stock phones)

I can't believe they haven't built one of these yet. Whatta bunch of manufacturing wusses

 

[scottder]

Quote:

Originally posted by pkasting For all you guys wanting an (easily user-)replaceable battery -- remember that that will probably add to the size of the unit, as well as the manufacturing cost (and thus the end-user cost). That's not to say it's a bad idea, I'm just reminding people there are always tradeoffs . Heck, my ideal DAP senses what I'm thinking and feeling and plays the exact *right* song for that moment, but I can't have that. Oh wait, that's less a tradeoff issue than a "the tech doesn't exist [yet]" issue.

Granted my Zen Xtra isn't as small as the ipod, but it does have a battery that is mondo easy to replace. Now if only Creative knew how to write interface software worth a damn. They should just let Red Chair do it for them.

Scott

 

[Stephonovich]

I want 24 hour battery life, and for no good reason. The 12 or whatever it is now on most models is fine, but there's something cool about being able to play for an entire day non stop. And with the new Li-Ion Polymer batteries, it's getting easier and easier to pack in the power. Or do like the NJB3, and have two batteries. But that'd increase size.

Another thing I want is format support. MP3 and Ogg Vorbis, obviously, (I could care less about WMA, but might as well include it) as well as MP4 and FLAC.

Also, on the fly playlist support. I'd love an iHP-1x0, (and will likely get one unless something better comes out) but it irks me that I'll have to create playlists beforehand. What if I decide I want to hear Metallica followed up by Elton John?

Oh yes, and wolfen68 has an excellent point... 802.11x support would be awesome. G would be the best current one, methinks. Backwards compatible with B, which is the most common one. Although it's still a sight slower than USB 2.0 or IEEE1394. Well, they could still have those supported too. But for just grabbing a track from a friend, or for playing on a stereo, wireless would be scwheet. (NOT an FM modulater, mind you, wireless internet. Make a little dongle you plug into the line-in on stereos or something)

(-:Stephonovich

 

[scottder]

Heck if we're going for pie in the sky 250gb - 1tb of space would be nice, cover all the lossless codecs, of course.

Scott

 

[rodbac]

Quote:

-High quality headphone out (built in PPA or better?)

This hits on something I've been wondering about: If some company was smart enough to buy Xin's SuperMini/Micro tech off of him, then include it in their player, don't you all think that unit would completely monopolize the market once word got around of it's sound, despite the expected price/size increases (neither of which I assume would be outrageous)?

I mean, my SuperMini piggybacked on my iHP completely, utterly, and absolutely blows away the sound out of every other stock player on the market by a huge margin. Isn't that kind of SQ worth the effort and expense for Apple/Rio/iRiver/Creative?

PS: This isn't meant to imply that I don't think there would be obstacles that would have to be overcome. Things like power, size, etc, might take some thought, but I'm also assuming that the 'amps' that are in them now aren't running on water vapor or integrated into the LCD (or some such bizarreness), so it seems the obstacles would require slight modifications rather than complete redesigns from scratch (but I could be wrong).

 

[ian]

That's never going to happen for size and power reasons. The insides of these players are VERY tight, to the point of trying to cut corners to make them smaller. Everyone is fighting for the title of smallest player and longest battery life.

On top of that, most of the DAC, headphone amp, etc solutions are one-chip deals. The chip does everything in a very small space with very little power. There's no way a company (in their right mind - spending on R&D would be ridiculous) would start using other solutions. An example is the Sigmatel 35xx (http://www.sigmatel.com/audio/stmp35xxpb.htm). Why pour lots and lots of money into developing this stuff when it's already done and working well?

 

[rodbac]

Makes sense, I guess.

My personal opinion is that "smallest" should come third, behind "battery life" (first) and "sound quality" (second), but obviously I'm in the vast minority or I assume the manufacturers would have figured it out by now (although, that might be giving them too much credit

).

If it would eat that much more battery life to have a decent amp in there, even one as tiny as Xin's, of course, those might be mutually exclusive, too.

 

[wolfen68]

Chasing the title of "smallest DAP" is ridiculous. Who really cares if it's cigarette lighter sized or tape cassette sized? Either size is adequate for portable use.

They should be more concerned about putting out the BEST unit at a competitive price that the market can accept.

 

[Oddball]

I'd prefer a smaller than a vintage PCDP sized mp3 player, but once it's the size of the Zen or iRiver, I don't care for any smaller. Once you get too small, the navigation for the hundreds of gigabytes of songs that you people are suggesting would become too difficult.

 

[smeggy]

My ideal..

Audiophile quality amping
External battery backup
Fast 5400rpm 2.5" 80Gb HDD
Line out
Good mechanical controls
Folder based
Parametric equalizer
USB2
No fluff.

Basically shove a drive and controller plus operational buttons into a LaRocco portable

I don't care about much else, I just want it to sound really good, work well and have a huge drive. All the rest is topping to me.

Surely there *must* be a market for a top end DAP that isn't just about size and 'features'.