[maocide]

Hi,
I'm looking for a gapless player (about 20 gb), I want to change my zen touch.
The audio quality is important, I listen with shure e2c.
Can someone help me to choose a player?

thank you very much

-mario

 

[davidd]

Rio Karma or iriver H100/H300 with rockbox

 

[maocide]

What is rockbox? A firmware? Can I use it with an european version?

 

[rhymesgalore]

Yes, Rockbox is an alternative firmware for the iriver hxxx series. it enables gapless playback on the irivers (for ogg vorbis, and lame encoded mp3), and also adds some new features like otg-playlists, as well as support for FLAC, WavPack, etc. just visit rockbox.org for more information on that.
The only players still available, that do gapless are the sony nw-hd5 and the sony nw-a3000. but only if you use atrac files.

 

[maocide]

Where can I buy an iriver H300 or H100 online?
Can't find it in italy...

thanks

 

[milamber]

it's been discontinued. If you're looking for one it'll have to be 2nd hand most likely.

 

[Kam3]

They are pretty hard to come by, and most ppl that have them, are less than willing to sell, as they are fairly more capable than what is available currently, especially with rockbox. their are some places you can check to have some though. misticaudio the store end of iriver site misticriver sometimes has new H1xxs for a premium of course (a much wanted 5 year old DAP in brand new condition). also looks like Bluetin still has H3xxs for the usual price.

 

[maocide]

thank you very much,
is the iriver h10 good? is the only one I found...

 

[davidd]

H10's don't do gapless, and aren't that great compared to iriver's other 20GB+ players

 

[maocide]

I think I'll buy a h320 if is compatible with rockbox...
So can I trust bluetin and buy there?

 

[Comrade Penguin]

Just to add into the mix, Sony players do gapless, are currently in production and do sound very good. Slightly warmer than most mp3 players. However you will have to use Sony's software and their format Atrac for this to work. The software seems to be getting better but isn't great. Just another option to consider.

 

[milamber]

Am I correct in saying that its only gapless for ATRAC ripped cds?

 

[Comrade Penguin]

It's only gapless with ATRAC as I said. As for stuff bought on the connect store I have no idea if it does gapless with it. Don't see any reason why not but that stuff is only encoded at 132kbps so it isn't going to be great quality. The biggest downside to the Sony apart from the software is that it doesn't support lossless audio although with sony relesing ATRAC lossless presumably there will be a firmware update to allow it. Well hopefully.

 

[FenderP]

SonicStage 3.x is actually fine. I've had no issues with my Vaio Pocket.

The Kenwood HD30GA9 is supposedly gapless with WAV and Kenwood Lossles, but your battery life will not be great for obvious reasons.

There isn't a perfect currently made solution, but I find Sony to be the best of the bunch for now in terms of an out-of-the-box solution.