Hello friends! need advices for new gear. no budget limit but some nerdy demands.

[castleofargh]

 i m looking for the best sounding "portable player"  that:
 
-1/ would boot fast! around 5sec to resume playing would be good . (no external memory or new music added, just a simple boot up+music)
 
-2/ can play audiobooks faster! i don't know the name of that function, it plays faster but compensates so the voice wouldn't sound like the narrator is under helium. ^_^
 
-3/ no hiss from my jh13 iem (i use 2other iem, for audiobooks or sport, but no big, hard to drive cans)
 
-4/ won't make my ears bleed anytime a phone is ON around me. i don't know why nobody talks about how sensible a product is to phone waves when reviewing a player, an amp, cables etc... ? they whine about gapless or small hissing, but never mention that you ll get lobotomized by alien cries from mars every time a dude standing next to you will receive a facebook update.
 
-5/ flac !!!!!
 
 
 
i can't find out if a cowon j3 or a dx100(vade retro android) would do the job? and i don't know 1/100 of what actually exists, so plz plz plz show me the way.
 
 
 
 
 
woop woop woop woop (V) (;,, (V)

 

[ZARIM]

The Sony A764, A765, A766, A767 are very good sounding DAPs (clear and smooth) for music and audiobooks because it doesn't get too loud and has play fast feature.

 

[castleofargh]

you must mean A86x series?
if i had to go back to Sony i would go for this one, but giving up flac for whatever atrac like codec they must have now, it s a bit deal killer for me.
 
i ve been enjoying the sony peculiar sound signature for many years, until they turned the S series from elite to some cheap player. most models had a very little hiss noticeable only at uber low volume, so even if this one is the same, i feel like it wouldn't be enough to bother me on the jh13.
 
thx for the suggestion, some review confirmed what you said about the audiobook fast play so that is another + to compensate the -flac.
 

 

[H20Fidelity]

The fastest booting player I own is Cowon's S9. taking around 2-3 seconds loading to the main menu from completely off (not sleep mode) It has pitch correction, resume and adjustable speeds, though the user interface may not be everyone's cup of tea.

 

[castleofargh]

pitch correction!!!!! that s the name i was looking for.
 
as a matter of fact i ve been looking for a s9 or a j3 for a few days and usually stumbled upon websites selling them to me just to call me back and tell me to pick another model ...  i got 1 last hope for a j3 i ve bought that might actually exist.
i knew the j3 was stopped since early this year. but i really though the s9 was still being fabricated.  well i m in france, maybe there is just a shortage for us. time will tell.
 
 
 
thx H20Fidelity, interesting intel, and i don't worry too much about the interface as i m used to samsung yp-p3 and sansa clip+ 
 
to me this one had all the interface i ever needed (i loved this baby, if not for the little hiss, and no flac, and sonicstage, and proprietary cable .... )

 

[castleofargh]

the j3 i bought online was another "not up to date catalog", so no j3 for me.
i bought an iaudio i10 and a sansa clip+ to make sure i won't have to make a step without music, but my quest for the not that perfect dap continues.

 

[jared basshead]

Go for the DX100 or  Studio V or Hifiman 901, if you are considering hi-grade players.
 The DX100 are supposed to be the best portable DAP around, it has Sabre DAC in it. Can play 24/192
here http://www.head-fi.org/products/ibasso-dx100-reference-dap/reviews/6857

 

[castleofargh]

Quote:

Go for the DX100 or  Studio V or Hifiman 901, if you are considering hi-grade players.
 The DX100 are supposed to be the best portable DAP around, it has Sabre DAC in it. Can play 24/192
here http://www.head-fi.org/products/ibasso-dx100-reference-dap/reviews/6857

dx100 battery life froze me. and then i started to see all the bug reports on the forum.
 
studioV, i ve heard the "normal" (as in not the anniv version) and the hissing was horrible. they say the anniv has "less hiss" but i fear it s still too much for me.
it s my best option atm, but it means going out with 2daps as i still need all the features for audiobooks (long trips are long). and so defeats the purpose of getting one good dap to go without amp.
901 is not out as far as i know so i can't even complain about the price or the battery life
 
it really feels like high spec manufacturers take us all for betatesters atm. if nobody makes a working dap in the next few months, i ll go back to sony. ( i stopped a few years ago when che guevara told me "no proprietary!!!"  )
 
 
right now i go with the i10 for sound (fast play sound is crap for playing audiobooks faster), with a samsung yp-p3 dying on me for audiobooks. and with a clip+ or 2 as last moment savior. but i don't like the clip+ sound that much without amp. so in the end my "portable" audio gear takes 1/3 of my huge photo backpack. this is getting ludicrous.
give me a good simple working dap plugged into a 11cell laptop battery and i would still win some space!!!!!!

 

[jared basshead]

Quote:

dx100 battery life froze me. and then i started to see all the bug reports on the forum.
 
studioV, i ve heard the "normal" (as in not the anniv version) and the hissing was horrible. they say the anniv has "less hiss" but i fear it s still too much for me.
it s my best option atm, but it means going out with 2daps as i still need all the features for audiobooks (long trips are long). and so defeats the purpose of getting one good dap to go without amp.
901 is not out as far as i know so i can't even complain about the price or the battery life
 
it really feels like high spec manufacturers take us all for betatesters atm. if nobody makes a working dap in the next few months, i ll go back to sony. ( i stopped a few years ago when che guevara told me "no proprietary!!!"  )
 
 
right now i go with the i10 for sound (fast play sound is crap for playing audiobooks faster), with a samsung yp-p3 dying on me for audiobooks. and with a clip+ or 2 as last moment savior. but i don't like the clip+ sound that much without amp. so in the end my "portable" audio gear takes 1/3 of my huge photo backpack. this is getting ludicrous.
give me a good simple working dap plugged into a 11cell laptop battery and i would still win some space!!!!!!

well the battery gives you 6.5-  7.5 hours depending upon usage, to me i know its okay and i can sacrifice anything for good output.
And talking about bugs, ibasso is up to release the 3rd batch with most of the fixes.
Since, battery life is what you want most then its NO GO for DX100.
Sony can be average here.
 
Quote:

you must mean A86x series?
if i had to go back to Sony i would go for this one, but giving up flac for whatever atrac like codec they must have now, it s a bit deal killer for me.
 
i ve been enjoying the sony peculiar sound signature for many years, until they turned the S series from elite to some cheap player. most models had a very little hiss noticeable only at uber low volume, so even if this one is the same, i feel like it wouldn't be enough to bother me on the jh13.
 
thx for the suggestion, some review confirmed what you said about the audiobook fast play so that is another + to compensate the -flac.
 

If you want FLAC on sony's then go for the F series and its  inbuilt amp is from S Master so called S-Master MX, well big soundstage with considerable volume but cant compete DX100 ofcourse. And yes it has fast play feature.

 

[milford30]

The Cowon C2 is quiet similar to the j3 from reviews , but i am unsure how well the pitch correction will be since you find the  i10 is insufficient and they are both Cowon...
or just add a small amp like fiio e11 to the clip, i personally use the LOD on my fuze to connect to an amp

 

[castleofargh]

Quote:

well the battery gives you 6.5-  7.5 hours depending upon usage, to me i know its okay and i can sacrifice anything for good output.

 7hours on specs. what i tend to read as 7hours with mp3 on super low impedance headphone, without using the screen and no EQ.
 the 1000+ pages about the dx100 let me believe that we can't use any kind of external battery pack. (but i m not really sure)
 less than 10hours tend to be a bother at least once a week for me. so next time ibasso.
 
thx for your post, i m looking at the sony dap specs right now.
 
 
 
@milford30 yeah i m not so sure that going for a cheaper cowon would improve anything. my guess is the pitch correction is the same **** on all cowons.
and i do use an amp with the clip+ when not for sport.  the initial plan here was to get rid of all the bulky stuff and use 1 dap alone to do it all without too much compromises on sound. but the better they get with sound the more sacrifices they ask me to make. WHYYYYYYYYYYY ?   

  thx for your post.

 

[milford30]

Quote:

 7hours on specs. what i tend to read as 7hours with mp3 on super low impedance headphone, without using the screen and no EQ.
 the 1000+ pages about the dx100 let me believe that we can't use any kind of external battery pack. (but i m not really sure)
 less than 10hours tend to be a bother at least once a week for me. so next time ibasso.
 
thx for your post, i m looking at the sony dap specs right now.
 
 
 
@milford30 yeah i m not so sure that going for a cheaper cowon would improve anything. my guess is the pitch correction is the same **** on all cowons.
and i do use an amp with the clip+ when not for sport.  the initial plan here was to get rid of all the bulky stuff and use 1 dap alone to do it all without too much compromises on sound. but the better they get with sound the more sacrifices they ask me to make. WHYYYYYYYYYYY ?   

  thx for your post.

 
it sounds like you are happy with the rockbox interface, why not try one of the other players that supports rockbox, the Cowon D2/D2+ looks promising, it only appears to be an unstable port because of sd card issues, if you library isn't too big it should be fine... 
I havn't heard the D2 but from the old reviews it appears to be decent you should be able to switch between stock and rockbox (for audio books), and the battery life sounds pretty decent, switching between cards sounds better then switching between daps, a small one with rockbox on it for audio books and a large one for music.
it easily be found on ebay

 

[castleofargh]

sounds like a good idea, if the pitch correction is good once rockboxed and i don't know about that. but i keep the idea and will look for intels about it thx.
i think the biggest problem is me. i spend hours looking at reviews and comments on a dap (i m sure there are a lot of daps i don't even know about) and for a few hours i feel like buying one. then i read something, completely change my mind and never want to hear about this dap again.
i suspect that music gears are slowly waking up the lunatic schizo in me.