[tman1]

I have been out of the loop for a little while on the latest DAP developments. Would anyone mind listing the current 32gb flash players, and advantages and disadvantages of each? I have only owned Sonys (currently have the NWZ-S639, 16gb), which I like except I would prefer more memory and on-the-fly playlists without sacrificing sound quality.
 
Looks like options are Zune HD, Cowon D9 and J3, Samsung, iPod Touch. Any others?
 
Anyone know how the Cowons or Zune compare to the Sony regarding sound quality and EQ?
 
Do any of these have on-the-fly playlists?
 
Thanks for any advice!
 

 

[Szadzik]

Sony X Series.

 

[redmike]

Another great player worthy of mention is the Samsung P3

 

[FlatNine]

Many people disike Apple for various reasons, but if you can listen objectively, I think you'd find that the 64GB Touch has an excellent sound, especially when paired with great IEM's.

 

[warrior05]

I agree with FlatNine in that the 3G iTouchs offer nice SQ.  However, I have a Zune HD and do prefer its SQ over my 64gb iTouch.  In direct comparison, I find the iTouch has a touch of mid-bass bloat and slightly muddy down low.  The Zune also provides a tad more sparkle and soundstage.  But these are nitpicks and the differences are not night and day.  In fact, I am perfectly happy listening to my iTouch.  It isn't like the Zune ruined my listening enjoyment with the it.  Plus - the Zune does NOT do gapless which is a big negative for me.  I really wanted to love the Zune.  It is so close to being my preferred PMP.
 
My main problem with the iTouch is living with Apple's eco-system.  I'm a PC guy and dealing with iTunes is just such a chore not to mention the complete bloatware that it is.
 
Personally, I'm closely eying Cowon's new J3.  It seems to answer everything I am looking for in a PMP.

 

[FlatNine]

 
Quote:

My main problem with the iTouch is living with Apple's eco-system.  I'm a PC guy and dealing with iTunes is just such a chore not to mention the complete bloatware that it is.

 

 
I totally hated the iTunes bloatware as well, and for years had used Anapod Explorer and, more recently Media Monkey to work with my iPod. When I got the Touch, I decided to try iTunes again. It's a little better than 3 years ago. but is still very bloated. Since I don't make changes very often, I may just run a virtual machine on my PC (VMWare) whose sole purpose is to host iTunes.

 

[tman1]

Thanks for the replies so far. Anyone know which of these has on-the-fly playlist capability?
 
How about usable EQ?

 

[warrior05]

Good question in regards to on-the-fly playlists!  I had forgotten to ask about this in the J3 Impressions thread.  The iTouch does not do on-the-fly playlists.  Annoying.
 
If you want to go a kind of extreme route - you can do a 5.5g iMod and replace the hard drive with a 32gb CF.  This is what I did then Rockboxed it.  Definitely my fav portable system (I have it mated with a Pico) but one I don't typically carry with me.

 

[tman1]

I just saw the P3 review which indicated that it had 5 (!) OTG playlists. That leaves the Zune HD and the Cowons. Can they do it?
 
I will assume that Sony still has not implemented OTG playlists, which, along with non-gapless, are my only gripes with the S639 (and the A740).

 

[vvaffles]

The Zune HD does do gaplass playback, my 16gb does at least, have you updated your firmware?
Quote:

Plus - the Zune does NOT do gapless which is a big negative for me.  I really wanted to love the Zune.  It is so close to being my preferred PMP.
 

 

[warrior05]

Quote:

The Zune HD does do gaplass playback, my 16gb does at least, have you updated your firmware?

Unless something came out within the past week or so - yes.  I remember asking awhile ago if Zunes do gapless and I was told they do.  However, mine definitely doesn't and I have heard of others that have the same issue.  Perhaps it makes a difference how you rip?  I always use dbPoweramp.  I rip to FLAC then transcode to MP3 Lame V0 for my portables.
 
As for the J3 - I have been assured by owners that it does do gapless - very well, in fact.  That player does everything that I am looking for in a PMP.  I'm pretty excited about it and it will definitely be my next PMP.  I am totally sold on it.  So much so that when I have it in my grubby hands for a bit and it really lives up to the billing, gone are my iTouch and my Zune HD.  No more proprietary eco-systems!  Yee-ha! 

 

[DbC]

I have this same "multillema". However, I do need a Browser. I think I'm getting the 3G Touch because of the browser and apps.

 

[mdickerman]

One thing to note, as far as I can tell all 32gb flash players which have a microSD card slot are limited to 8000 tracks:
Creative X-Fi 2 (64gb and it only allows 8000 tracks?!)
Sansa View (32gb)
Cowon J3 (32gb)
 
For non-expandable options, I believe the stated limit on the 64gb Touch is 14000 tracks, not sure if there's a similar limit on the 64gb Zune HD or the Sony player.
 
Anyone know of an expandable 32gb flash player which doesn't have these limits?

 

[IDK]

Do all flash players have a Max Number of Track Limits?
 
What about Hard Drive players?