[BenAdamson]

Hey, I'm looking to upgrade from my sansa clip+ as the socket is no longer functioning properly (I have to hold the jack in a very specific place for any music to come through, there seems to be a bad connection!)
 
What I'm looking for:
 

1. FLAC playback - Most of my collection is stored in FLAC. If there is an alternate lossless format that I can easily convert my collection (Only about 8GB ATM) to without a significant loss in quality I would be fine with that too.
2. Video support -  A decently sized screen for occasional movie/TV episode watching would be a good plus.
3. Balanced output - My IEMs are Head-Direct RE-ZEROs, which use a balanced plug, which is fairly rare I presume. At the moment I have to use an adaptor, which is not ideal.
4. Nice interface/apps - I may be using this for other entertainment, would an iTouch or some android powered device work?

 
Any suggestions? My budget is fairly small for these things (£150ish at the most).

 

[BenAdamson]

Bump for an answer...
 
I might be able to increase my budget a bit - How much would an iTouch with a fairly good LOD be?

 

[ExpatinJapan]

ipod touch 4g has an app FLAC player, or you could convert it to wmv with XLD convertor (very fast).
Also EQu and equalizer apps are good.
 
Another suggestion from others would be cowon J3 or cowon X7.
 
LODs can be quite cheap and ok (fiio L9 to much more expensive), you only need one if you have an amp.

 

[BenAdamson]

I thought LODs just generally helped with the sound quality by using different hardware than the normal 3.5mm port. Would it be worth me getting a LOD cable for my RE-ZEROs? I do have an iBasso T4 portable amp, but I never really use it at the moment (Despite the fact it's tiny, it's still bigger than my Clip+!), would I find myself using it more with an iTouch?
 
Also what is the best compression to use that I can convert from FLAC to that the iPod can play? Is apple lossless (m4a) any good?

 

[lunarmouse]

Quote:

I thought LODs just generally helped with the sound quality by using different hardware than the normal 3.5mm port. Would it be worth me getting a LOD cable for my RE-ZEROs? I do have an iBasso T4 portable amp, but I never really use it at the moment (Despite the fact it's tiny, it's still bigger than my Clip+!), would I find myself using it more with an iTouch?
 
Also what is the best compression to use that I can convert from FLAC to that the iPod can play? Is apple lossless (m4a) any good?

Currently I am using iTouch + FLAC player, with a little fiio amp and a PK3 earbug. Well, the 3.5mm cable was from Cardas, funny configuration. I think your components should be good enough. BTW I don't see any necessity to convert your FLACs to Apple Loseless files. Flac player handles music pretty good. So it seems redundant to me.

 

[BenAdamson]

Ok, thanks.