Hi guys. As the title says I'm looking for a dap. My iPod classic has bit the dust and I need a new player.
Budget is <$350
Needs expandable storage
Prefer it to have some internal Flash storage.
Needs to be rugged
Prefer it to play apple loseloss so I don't have to convert my files but not necessary
And I want it to be easy to use with a good ui and easy to put songs on it.
Also want it to be iPod size or there abouts I don't want a clip unless you can explain why I should.
Thanks for the help
That's going to be a bit of a problem. First off, "easy to put songs on it" is dependent on what you're used to. Given you used to have an iPod, chances are you will be the exact opposite of someone like me who can't understand why I have to open iTunes just to transfer songs, and worse delete them on the player
then hook it up to put in new albums, when I can drag and drop in Windows. A bunch of people who were used to iTunes fixing everything for them might think drag and drop is as simple as that, but not if you aren't OC about archiving your files in the first place, and without iTunes to organize them, they end up with a microSD card loaded with songs but can't find some of them on the non-Apple player, likely because of tagging issues. I still buy physical CDs, archive them in FLAC and
manually tag all of them before I archive the physical disk on my library shelf, and none of my Android smartphones nor DAPs I've tried had any issues with the files loaded in microSD cards I've put in them. In Android, every music player can access the microSD, so if I wanted to try something out, they're all right there, instead of having to run iTunes and load songs (maybe delete some first because 32gb on my iPad was just too small for my apps and audio) then comes an iTunes update and something doesn't work, so I need to hook it up again and sync my default FLAC player.
Second, if you can even find one with internal flash storage at that price point, it's likely not to be over 16gb, and in some cases the internal storage is meant to be used only for the firmware and system memory (ex. for preloading the next track), and putting anything in it can cause a few issues. Non-Apple nor otherwise mainstream brand DAPs at that price point had all the costs basically go to the audio hardware - the DAC and amplification circuit - since when they were being designed what was precisely in the minds of Head-Fi-ers giving feedback on the concepts was that "Apple makes us pay more for memory; let us handle whether we want to buy a 32/64gb card now, or use a spare which we likely have, then later when prices go down we'll upgrade the microSD card to microSDXC 128gb/256gb without buying a whole player."
Third, the ones with fancier UIs also had a lot of bugs at the start, and even now with most of them ironed out, they're still not as smooth to use as an iPod or even a Clip, as sometimes you might not see the album art (which iTunes automatically attaches a photo in the right size for the iDevice; while the Clip doesn't deal with that). Any players that have good SQ and have no issues like these will likely have a UI like the Clip's, even if they're slightly larger (the whole idea being that a simpler UI means less issues), like the Roccoo P (which is shaped like a small brick, literally, with real corners that will snag tight pockets). Oh and IIRC at least one of them (forgot which one) had issues with AAC and ALAC.
Basically what I'm saying is that if you're used to Apple's system (specifically, using iTunes; also if you already have all your files in Apple formats), then just stick with it instead of going the long route of trying another DAP, then filling up their threads with rants about how much they suck, selling it then buying an iPod Touch (and maybe some kind of iDevice DAC also). Just go straight to an iPod Touch, plus some kind of wireless drive if your music doesn't fit in its internal memory.
