High Sound Quality DAP

[webzeb]

Hello everyone.

I'm looking for a new DAP, to replace my Creative Zen Micro 5GB.

My main matter of concern remains sound quality.
In fact the DAP will be used - unamped - with Etymotic Er6i (most of time), BeyerDynamic DT880 and AKG K701.

My Creative Zen Micro just offers the needed power to drive my DT880 (since I do not listen too loud). Sound quality is quite correct...

So my criteria are :

1. Sound quality (cf. above).
2. Huge battery life (the main weakness of my Zen micro).
3. 8GB or more (30GB sounds great, even if I'm not focused on a huge disk space).
4. Navigation by idTags.
5. USB ont-the-go appreciated (but not needed).
6. Microphone appreciated (but not needed too).
7. FLAC appreciated (but not needed at all).

Thank you for your help.

Fred

 

[zip22]

can you elaborate on 'huge autonomy'

 

[rsabo]

do you mean "portability"?

Rio Karma looks like it meats your criteria, as long as you can get one.

great sound, 20 gigs, ID3 navigation, FLAC, pretty compact. No USB-OTG or microphone.

Be aware that Rio is dead, even still the karma is a great player.

 

[webzeb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zip22 can you elaborate on 'huge autonomy'

I meant "battery life".

12H playing high bitrate VBR MP3 at a "normal" volume should be a minimum.

Fred

 

[aaroncort]

wow I like it that battery life translates to autonomy from french. Very interesting. I supose mp3 players are autonomous machines.

 

[angler31337]

I agree. When I read "autonomy" I thought the request was for something without proprietary software. Strange.

Anyway, in terms of pure SQ I don't think you can do much better than iRiver or iAudio. In both cases, just turning off all the "enhancement" features will leave you with some very nice, very clean, high fidelity sound. My personal preference goes with iAudio, because there is no iTunes (or equivalent) required software; with that said, I don't think most of their players come with line out, which is a bummer.

-Angler

 

[webzeb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by angler31337 I agree. When I read "autonomy" I thought the request was for something without proprietary software. Strange. Anyway, in terms of pure SQ I don't think you can do much better than iRiver or iAudio. In both cases, just turning off all the "enhancement" features will leave you with some very nice, very clean, high fidelity sound. My personal preference goes with iAudio, because there is no iTunes (or equivalent) required software; with that said, I don't think most of their players come with line out, which is a bummer. -Angler

In France we're used to say "autonomie" when we refer to "battery life".

[...]

I was looking at the iAudio M3L/M5L/X5L and thought they were exactly what I was looking for...but they don't support idTags.

Someone told me they'd be a software update : any information about that ?

Fred

 

[HeavyBassMan]

I've got both the iRiver (iHP140) and Cowon iAudio (X5L). I'll only comment on these two.

iRiver was my first ever DAP, and it has stood the test of time. I recently installed Rockbox, and now it sounds brilliant. It really changed everything since I can play my FLAC files now, and get a really top sound just with a bit of EQ thown in.

Cowon iAudio's sound is amazing, even without any EQ or enhancement settings. The only problem I give to the iAudio is that the EQ is only 'gain' driven, so you can't roll back on any frequencies. This is not a big problem however, it's just something I've noticed which I'd change somehow if I could. Other than that, the iAudio has some nice features and is easy on the eye too.

I like them both. iRiver is getting a bit more use from me at the moment though.

 

[nickd75]

I hate to bang on and on and on about the same topic, but I can really recommend the Sony HD5(H). Huge battery life, good sound, drives my Shure E3c with no problem. And if you can get the H variant (HD5H) that's 30GB (standard is 20GB).

Cheers
Nick

 

[angler31337]

Quote:

Originally Posted by webzeb Someone told me they'd be a software update : any information about that ?

Cowon is always saying that they will fix problems with future firmware upgrades. I'll let you be the judge of whether you believe it or not. Historically, the company has fixed a lot of things that consumers have complained about... though I can't say how rapidly they have done so. Personally, I find folder browsing and file names sufficient, so this isn't a topic I'm really in the know on.

-Angler