[ext23]

hi all, first post.
 
my ipod nano has become really unstable so i wanna get something new.
 
i really don't care about video at all. i'm not gonna be watching videos on the move. photos, maybe, occassionally, but i have a smartphone for that.
 
after reading these forums a bit, i am interested in:
 
- sansa clip/fuze
- s:flo2
- amp3
- iriver e30
 
i will be using this mostly on the train/commuting and when jogging. when jogging i will be using cheap panasonic earbuds (not in-ear style), but when commuting and when at home i wanna plug in my grado sr80s. i have a cmoy amp that my bro made for me but it's actually driving my HTPC speakers at the moment.
 
i listen to a large variety of music. i know everyone says that but i often listen to jazz (davis, fitzgerald), big band (sinatra), punk and metal, indie/folk, and heavy electro house in the same day. often on the same trip.
 
the amp3 in particular looks right up my alley: no frills and just great audio quality. BUT seriously where can you buy these things? can somebody give me a link to a webstore that ships to australia/japan? how much do they even cost? are they always in stock or do they go in and out?
 
otherwise i would probably be aiming at one of the sansa models for simplicity. i read that they sound pretty good without using a headphone amp. i assume this means they could easily handle my grado sr80s. unfortunately i can't seem to find them readily available in japan.
 
for the all-out experience i'm also keen on the s:flo2 but i don't really feel like waiting until november or whatever until new stock comes in to mp4nation.
 
the iriver e30 is going really cheap over here in japan, and looks like a pretty safe bet. however, i can't find much info on it on these forums, so i'm not expecting stellar sound quality. can anybody provide some quick insights?
 
please give me some suggestions based on all that info. fwiw, my first mp3 player was an iriver clix and it remains the best one i have ever used or owned. the UI was superb. i wish something as simple and well-made as that was still around.
 
thanks!

 

[ext23]

update: seems that japan doesn't carry sansa products anymore, so if i wanna buy a clip/fuze i would be looking at an expensive ebay purchase. (eg. $80+ australian for an 8gb first generation clip. i know from reading this forum that they should be cheaper than this.)
 
suggestions? thanks.

 

[Hero Kid]

Quote:

for the all-out experience i'm also keen on the s:flo2 but i don't really feel like waiting until november or whatever until new stock comes in to mp4nation.

Try House of Dap and look for the Telecast T51 - it's exactly the same as the s:flo2 just doesn't come in 16gb capacity. 
Other than that you can get the Clip+ from eBay shipped to Australia for ~$80 AUD eg http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPII.dll?ViewItem&item=180553018575.
 
Also have you considered the new(ish) Cowon J3? It's a pretty polished player with a nice UI but good sound quality and amazing battery life.
 
They are my DAPs of choice to date.

 

[Dreamnine]

Clip+. Forget the others.

 

[ext23]

thanks for the input.

Quote:

Clip+. Forget the others.

can you elaborate on this? like i said it's gonna be pretty expensive to source one on ebay. at least, more than they are originally worth.
 
Quote:

Try House of Dap and look for the Telecast T51 - it's exactly the same as the s:flo2 just doesn't come in 16gb capacity. 
Other than that you can get the Clip+ from eBay shipped to Australia for ~$80 AUD eg http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPII.dll?ViewItem&item=180553018575.
 
Also have you considered the new(ish) Cowon J3? It's a pretty polished player with a nice UI but good sound quality and amazing battery life.
 
They are my DAPs of choice to date.

i will check out that website, thanks for the suggestion. as a matter of fact i played with a cowon J3 today and it was indeed nice.
 
my only thing is, i already have a HTC desire smartphone, which does basically everything the cowon and s:flo2 do (without the incredible audio processing power, of course). i don't really want two big devices.
 
the new mp3 player will be spending a lot of time jogging with me, so realistically i don't want to be carrying a 3" inch touchscreen...i just like the specs of those big players.
 
i saw those little fiio e5 amps in the shop today as well, they are certainly nice and compact. are they worth the $20 price tag? obviously i would be combining it with the grados and whichever little mp3 player i get.
 
edit: looking at house of DAP, i found this other teclast player: http://www.houseofdap.com/teclast-c350-tl-c350-3-inch-rockchip-hd-player-4gb.html seems almost the same as the t51, yet half the price. what am i missing here?

 

[David58117]

The Clip+ is nice in that it's small and expandable via SD card.  I've only had mine a few days, but after reading reviews from amazon I'm sort of wondering how durable it is.  There's talk of once the battery reaches 50% or so it very quickly drains to 0%.  Mine doesn't do that, but it's only been a number of days...but I don't get the impression the Clip+ is built with the most durable battery and parts.  I have the comfort of the warranty/$40 price point, but If it's tough and expensive for you to get a replacement, you might want to do some research and consider that.  
 
Maybe someone who has had it longer than I have can comment on the durability.  It's a really nice get up and go player though, great for jogs.  

 

[ext23]

yeah, an 8gb clip would be somewhere in the order of $80 AU no matter where i managed to find it. :/
 
meanwhile i found an online source for the4gb  amp3 for about $150 AU. how does that price sound? is the audio quality really that great?

 

[Danneq]

The Sansa line of players seems very difficult to find here in Japan. The Clip+ or Fuze would be great for you since you are thinking about using the MP3 player when you go jogging.
 
How about the Cowon iAudio i9? It is small and you can try it out at places like Yodobashi or BIC Kamera. Supposedly it sounds pretty much like the Cowon S9 which sounds pretty much the same as the J3. Unfortunately you cannot expand the memory on the i9 as you can on the Clip+ and Fuze.
 
EDIT: If you are looking for good sound quality and do not mind looking at older Japanese players, there is always the Kenwood HDD MP3 players. They are not sold in stores anymore, but you might be able to find them online. I bought a HD20GA7 from Yahoo auction. The HD10GB7 is small, about the size of a Clip+ and sounds very good. They can be found used for less than 20.000 yen, probably around 15.000. The only bad thing about those is that they do not work well for running since they use hard drives. The HD10GB7 uses a 10GB microdrive which is similar to a compact flash card, but it is still sensitive to bumps and shocks. So if you use the player for running, perhaps the Clip+/Fuze or the Cowon i9 might be the best bet...

 

[ext23]

actually the i9 does look pretty good. it's not that much bigger than my current nano. when you say it sounds like the J3, how does the J3 compare to the other players mentioned in this thread? thx.

 

[penartur]

Quote:

update: seems that japan doesn't carry sansa products anymore, so if i wanna buy a clip/fuze i would be looking at an expensive ebay purchase. (eg. $80+ australian for an 8gb first generation clip. i know from reading this forum that they should be cheaper than this.)
 
suggestions? thanks.

If you're from japan, why not to try Sony X1060 or A847? AFAIK their SQ is one of the best on the mass-production market.
I'd not recommend Kenwood HDD DAPs because these are too expensive (compared to sony DAPs with the similar capacities) and it seems that HDD-based DAPs are not durable enough for you.

 

[Hero Kid]

If you plan to go jogging with it I would say go for the Clip+. It's small, lightweight, rockboxable, has a FM radio, expansion slot, tactile controls, etc, etc.
It's basically perfect for jogging/gym.

 

[ext23]

Quote:

If you plan to go jogging with it I would say go for the Clip+. It's small, lightweight, rockboxable, has a FM radio, expansion slot, tactile controls, etc, etc.
It's basically perfect for jogging/gym.

ok. i actually found some refurb'd clips at a cheaper price. i have one question about the clip though; the clip+ loses the trackwheel function of the original, right? doesn't that make it hard to scroll through 8gb+ of music? at any rate i think i prefer the looks of the original.
 
does anybody have any experience with the amp3 pro2?

 

[Hero Kid]

Nearly everything I've read said the Clip+ was better than the Clip. I have 24gb of music and with Rockbox it's easy to scroll through it all. Sure it's not as nice as a iPod but it's still really really easy.
I'd be pushing you to the "+" but you can feel free to punch me in the face at any time.

 

[Danneq]

 
Quote:

actually the i9 does look pretty good. it's not that much bigger than my current nano. when you say it sounds like the J3, how does the J3 compare to the other players mentioned in this thread? thx.

 
 
I cannot comment on how the players in your list sound like. The i9 has the same BBE+ EQ as the S9 and the J3, and I have read reviews where it is stated that they sound similar. My S9 sounds very nice after some tweaking with the EQ.
The downside is no expansion slot, which the Clip+ has got. I do not know how you feel about touch controls, but the i9 has got a touchpad that might be an acquired taste...

Here is a review of the i9

 

[amp2xpand]

I've had 2 out of the 4 that the OP has mentioned: amp3 and fuze. 
 
I would definitely the fuze. The price/performance is unbeatable. 
 
I really liked my amp3. When I first listened to it, i was in awe... how could a portable player sound THIS good. I've listened to it for a few weeks, enjoying the great sound and dealing with the crappy interface. It was so annoying to deal with all the problems it had: battery charging, forever boot up time, searching for certain music... I just ended it using this player on "random" setting so i wouldn't need to deal with it. But the music quality was really good. 
 
After a few weeks, I decided to buy a fuze because it was so cheap. Man... the sound was just as good to me, but different. I haven't listened to both of them for a while so i'll have to analyze them to describe the difference. A player that is about 1/3 price of the amp3 and sounding just as good! and best of all it was FUNCTIONAL. Maybe i was too caught up with the amp3 hype, making me liking it more psychologically. But i think the fuze is nearly as good or just as good compared to the amp3 soundwise.