[SoCalWR]

What is the best DAP in your opinion and why? Flash or HDD it doesn't matter just support your opinion.

 

[illini]

My vote would be a rockbox'ed Ipod 5.5 with all flac file format. 2nd would Sony nwz A8xx Great SQ but no support for lossless audio.

 

[Downer]

iMod 5.5 Rockboxed and running FLAC

 

[rockin_amigo14]

iAudio X5L: i've never been a fan of carrying around an external amp, so i've always been big on headphone amp. the X5L was easily the best sounding DAP i've ever used from its headphone out. i really wish cowon would make a successor.

 

[RubenNYC]

Best DAP? TrekStor vibez

Why?

1. Sound Quality.
2. Gapless playback. Asbolutely perfect gapless playback.
3. Codecs. MP3, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC & WAV.
4. Custom 5-band parametric EQ. I enjoy the ability to customize the center frequency and width of each of the bands, plus the ability to save multiple custom presets. The vibez lets you name and save as many as you want. And you have to try pretty hard to create distortion as the vibez auto-levels the total gain to avoid it.
5. Full control over running playlist. Being able to add music from my library anywhere I want to in the running playlist, remove music from the running playlist, and rearrange tracks within the running playlist. Plus the ability to save it as a named playlist using whatever name I want.
6. Ability to create/edit/delete playlists.
7. RioDJ style dynamic playlists.
8. USB 2.0 for transfer & charging. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but having it charge by USB also means zero dependency on a proprietary charger. I'll never have a hard time finding a replacement USB wall charger or car charger.
9. Easy access to all available file information. Title, artist, album, original artist, genre, year, codec, bitrate, file size, last modified, date loaded, date last played, play count, mood, rating, comments, composer, PCM frequency, file path.
10. Browse by both ID3 tags and folder. I appreciate while some prefer folder browsing. But, I much prefer browsing by tags. Browsable tags: Artist, Album, Track, Genre, Year, Composer, Mood, Cover Versions, Spoken Word (new in beta fw), album art (new in beta fw).
11. Dedicated volume buttons.
12. Single handed operation.
13. Both MSC & MTP support. With the production 1.04 firmware this is configurable in Windows. With beta firmware, this is configurable on the device. Many many people swear by MSC and avoid MTP like the plague, but I've grown to appreciate the ability to sync playcounts, last played dates and ratings from the vibez back to the PC using MTP.
14. Album Art
15. Easy to use, highly efficient navigation wheel. Some complain that it's hard to use. I disagree as it took me all of about 5 minutes to get used to it, and its efficiency is at least on par with the iPod clickwheel.
16. User-replacable Li-ion battery. All you need is a paper-clip.
17. Available in-line remote.
18. Firmware/Codebase. The vibez codebase is a direct descendant of the empeg, Rio Car, and Rio Karma; and it's being actively developed to fix bugs and add features incorporating user feedback.

 

[Luminette]

5.5g 80gb iMod

space and sound quality

ability to rockbox is a plus, haven't tampered with that myself but may do so

 

[krmathis]

iPod nano (1st. or 2nd. generation).
* Small size.
* Durable.
* Apple Lossless, AAC and MP3.
* Sound quality.
* Album art.
* iTunes integration.
* User friendly UI.
* Dedicated line out.

 

[johnanderson]

Iaudio x5. If there was a way to stick a flash drive in one then I'd keep it, but because I always skip songs I need a flash player.

 

[nfusion770]

It's tough to answer that question without specifying categories. Of all non-modded players:

Tiny- Sansa Clip 2gb/4gb- sounds great, does everything, is tiny.

Med Size- Sony A8xx 8gb - small, sleek, great UI and sounds great.

Full Size- Ipod Classic 160gb- criticisms aside, essentially dwarfs the capacity of its competition. Sounds pretty good to me and has a multitude of accessories and lineout options.

Media Player- Ipod Touch 32gb- very good for video, software available for seamless rips, wifi, revolutionary UI (granted I have not used any of it's competitors).

IMO of course

 

[my.self]

iPods are my #1 HATED DAP.

I currently own a zen vision M.
the BEST DAP i would probably say..Archos or Cowon.
just look up their features and youll know why.

But yea, iPods seriously suck.

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by my.self /img/forum/go_quote.gif But yea, iPods seriously suck.

Good to know that we all have different preferences and opinions.

 

[MadDog]

Is the IMod considered a portable? I didn't think it was...

 

[ueyteuor]

plain and simple:

/thread

 

[shigzeo]

why do people even answer these questions?

 

[rockin_amigo14]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shigzeo /img/forum/go_quote.gif why do people even answer these questions?

because it's better than writing literary criticism for English class