[Tylerdurden389]

I had someone here on this forum fix up my ipod a few times and they did a good job and charged very fairly. However, new problems have arose since and they aren't answering me emails anymore. I've also started looking into some alternate players though I know nothing about this sorta stuff. The 2 I've been suggested are the Surfans F20 hifi mp3 player, and the Hidizs AP80 Pro. Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

 

[msing539]

You can start in the DAP comparison thread: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hi-res-portable-daps-comparison-chart-2022.961903/

I have a cheap HiBy... it's great. Shanling, FiiO, and iBasso also have good entry level options.

 

[jmwant]

I had someone here on this forum fix up my ipod a few times and they did a good job and charged very fairly. However, new problems have arose since and they aren't answering me emails anymore. I've also started looking into some alternate players though I know nothing about this sorta stuff. The 2 I've been suggested are the Surfans F20 hifi mp3 player, and the Hidizs AP80 Pro. Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

Take a look at the Shanling Q1 too if you don't need balanced.

 

[bachankas]

I can recommend HiBy R3 Pro or Pro Saber.
Small but comfortable in daily use, very nice sound, no hiss, nice battery life.
If lack of USB-C is not a problem, you can also look for used Walkmans from Sony - A45 or A55. Great battery life, good sound with improvement after MrWalkman software installed.

 

[Elegiac]

Surfans F20

Go the F20
A solid player that'll sound as good as what you feed it, but does a fair job with everything.

 

[Gamerlingual]

Sony NW-A55

 

[Selrisitai]

Go the F20
A solid player that'll sound as good as what you feed it, but does a fair job with everything.

I'd give the caveat that he should expect an interface about as advanced as the original iPod as well, lol!

 

[Elegiac]

I'd give the caveat that he should expect an interface about as advanced as the original iPod as well, lol!

Well, I didn't feel the need to list all it's advantages

But if that matters to our friend here, there are plenty of cheap touchscreen players floating around. He could pick up one of the AP80 iterations.

 

[Selrisitai]

Well, I didn't feel the need to list all it's advantages

But if that matters to our friend here, there are plenty of cheap touchscreen players floating around. He could pick up one of the AP80 iterations.

Well, I've also got the Surfans F20 and one of the advantages it has is tactile controls. It's more the interface on the screen I was joking about. It has a tiny screen, and the layout is not the best conceived, with even small amounts of text needing to scroll for it to all be visible, and it scrolls slowly. The album art doesn't completely show, and is cut off on the lower third. Lyrics in tags don't show. I guess you have to put lyric files in the folder itself which is ridiculous!

But yeah, it plays music and has a lot of basic features that you'd want, like adjusting the balance, a 10-band equalizer, 100-step volume control, search by letter, and more. IF you're in it primarily for the music and can live with some clunky aspects and poorly implemented features, it's a beautiful player with quality sound!

 

[Elegiac]

Yeah, I like it. And trust me, compared to some other cheaper options, it's responsive! And the fact that it copes with displaying any album art you throw at it. My most expensive device won't show album art of any kind. And it sorta forced a recognition from me: that I don't sit there looking at album covers. I play music and let the screen go dark, no matter which player I'm using. So seeing the album art is pleasant, but it's not necessary.

 

[Tylerdurden389]

Hi everyone. Sorry to bump an old thread but I'm getting closer to deciding on committing to a purchase (work issues has prevented me from any large purchases for a long time). I'm leaning towards the surfans over the AP80. The AP80's site doesn't say how big the storage is though (it says "Maximum Storage Expansion 512G", and I'm not sure if that means gigabytes). My only question is, the amazon description for the surfans says "32gb, but can be expanded to 256". How/where do I get that done, and how much does it cost? I need 256 right outta the gate, as my broken ipod had that and it was already more than half full, and I have a lot of music I've acquired since.

 

[Davesrose]

It's saying that it has 32GB internal storage. Most players have micro SD card slots (with different capacities), so that would accept a card up to 256GB. I have a player that accepts 1TB and I have a 512GB card: which gives me a lot of room for a library (even if it has a mix of lossless files). Though looking at AP80 on Amazon, it says it takes up to 1TB (might have been updated).

 

[Elegiac]

It comes with a 32gb card. I pulled that out and put a 64gb card in there. No internal storage.

The biggest card I have is 96gb in one of my players, which is a lot of music. It's the only way I can understand people complaining about responsiveness and scrolling speed: when you have 256gb of music, damn, that would take some navigating.

 

[Tylerdurden389]

I see. So I'd buy the thing, then buy a 256 gb separately, then insert it myself? Or do I send it to a technician to install it for me?

 

[Elegiac]

There's a slot, in the side. You can, eject the card, and put a new one in.