[cel4145]

You might have one that works, but you can get a Sansa Clip for so short money that spending hours converting your stuff might not be worth it. 

I use Media Monkey (and I'm sure other players can do this too). No effort. You can setup a sync profile so that it automatically rips to mp3 from flac. Sure, it would take a while the first, but you don't need to babysit. Just leave it running.

I can also heartily recommend the Sansa Clips. You can usually catch one for $30. For instance, http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Full-Color-MicroSDHC-Stopwatch--SDMX22-004G-A57R/dp/B005FVNGRI/

 

[JDash247]

Who said an 6th gen Ipod can't be rockboxed?
http://www.head-fi.org/t/532426/ipod-classic-rockbox-its-happening

 

[Sir Tmotts III]

I tried rockbox for a few weeks, I didn't like the UI compared to Apple's, and just called it a day and convert all my stuff to ALAC.

 

[jfaaz]

  Who said an 6th gen Ipod can't be rockboxed?
http://www.head-fi.org/t/532426/ipod-classic-rockbox-its-happening

I use Mac OSX; therefore, installing Rockbox on my 6th and 7th generation iPod Classics would be a risky venture.  Tried once and failed.

 

[Claude]

FLAC is now extremely popular and it has no relevant technical limitations, so it's clearly not outdated.
 
Other lossless codecs such as Monkey Audio (.ape files) or Wavpack (.wv) could rather be called outdated, even though they have advantages over FLAC (a bit smaller file size), because there is hardly any hardware support for them.

 

[AUDIOBREEDER]

FLAC is now extremely popular

Are you sure flac is popular? It's not even available on iTunes (the most popular digital store) and even in streaming services like spotify.
It's more expensive than mp3, takes a lot of space especially on a portable players.

 

[Mambosenior]

ITunes is the exception, not the rule. FLAC is found everywhere else. I am a Mac person but Apple's self-interest disregard for FLAC has always pissed me off.

 

[Claude]

Are you sure flac is popular? It's not even available on iTunes (the most popular digital store) and even in streaming services like spotify.
It's more expensive than mp3, takes a lot of space especially on a portable players.

It's the most popular lossless codec.
 
I'm sure lossy compression will be abandonned in a couple of years, because download speed and storage space are no longer an issue, at least for home use.
 
The main reason why download stores stick to MP3 is not the file size, but the fact that MP3 is the only codec that every hardware player supports.

 

[eugenius]

Living in the Apple jail - it does stuff to your brain.