[dura]

- best sound quality
- 8 Mb or over, solid state
- long batterylife, from a standard AA battery
- durable, stylish and compact design preferably metal

 

[Skylab]

> 200GB hard drive
> nice sounding analog out AND digital out
> 100% compatible with iTunes
> supports native FLAC and SHN.
> Great battery life and fairly small.

 

[s2pidstoner]

Rio Carbon C

oh, what could have been

 

[nytmarezz]

*exterior design/size like iRiver U10

*black, brushed aluminum exterior

*storage would be 4gb solid state memory

*would support video playback @ 30fps of MPEG, WMV, DivX, XviD

*would support audio playback of MP3, OGG, WMA, FLAC, WAV

*would support UTS (USB drag drop) and USB host (OTG) to use to pull pics off dig camera

*gapless playback option

*minimum 320 mp3 bitrate line-in recording

*minimum battery life 14hrs

*removeable/replaceable battery

*FM radio + FM recording

*XM radio too (and recording?

)

*a user set EQ

*customizable menu/backgrounds/etc.

 

[Skylab]

Quote:

*a user set EQ

Make that a distortion-free user set EQ, and you're onto something

 

[Dustin24]

I live my life with the knowledge that I will most likely be stranded on a desert island or homeless walking the streets. I buy my electronics based on those two things. So......

1. 100+gig
2. No bigger then 4g Ipzodiac
3. Able to last 30+ hours on 3 AA bats
4. Able to charge AA bats in the unit.
5. 4" screen
6. Hard buttons for blind operating
7. FM transmitter built in....and a good one damnit!!!!!!
8. Pimptastic line out
9. Uberfabulous earshattering volume
10. Able to play any format vid or music
11. Would have built in VLC as its player
12. Lcd would be behind a piece of user-replaceable plastic.
13. NO SHINEY CHROME ******IT!!!!!!
14. All internals would be designed by the best amp and electronics makers
15. FM
16. Recessed headphone jack
17. Bluetooth
18. Completely user customizable GUI
19. No dongles
20. UMS
21. USB host
22. Incapable of playing Country music
23. Explodes with 128kb files
24. Homer designed drink holder
25. World peace
26. Two front teeth
27. Jacket I lost in 5th period

I swear to god electronics makers.........do all of the above or I'm gonna tear this mutha up!!!!!!!!!

 

[GlendaleViper]

Definitely gapless - although to touch further on it, it would be really nice to include the crossfade option like seen in iTunes for when you toss the ol' pod on shuffle.

A good, user defined EQ without the typical audio garbling that comes with it. When you get low-frequency clipping on violin concertos you've got trouble.

USER REPLACEABLE BATTERY!!!!!

Larger Cache Memory - so songs ripped at higher bitrates or lossless aren't so detrimental to battery life (between charges and overall battery life).

Eliminate plastic and glossy metal. My old Minidisc player was a beautiful brushed aluminum - hid scratches well and didn't make me look like a slob with millions of grimey fingerprints on it. The most recent iPod generation shows wear like it's a fashion statement.

Bring Firewire back!

Not a likely addition, but give me line out right out of the box - one that I can pop a 1/8" into.

Finally - and this will NEVER happen - gimme 1/4" sockets!!!

 

[groove_9]

I hope all those firms making DAP's are reading this. This is free market research for them.

Sony VGF-AP1L with
60GB<
Ipod's UI- or something similar(G-sense still not as easy to use as pod's UI)
speedy menu
size of the nw-hd1
line out on the unit
4-8 band EQ
louder headphone output
Dell DJ pricing

 

[catscratch]

1) Digital output (on player, no sub-packs or mini-docks!)
2) True line-out (on player)
3) Decent headamp
4) Warm tonal balance (most portables and IEMs are bright)
5) Multiple lossless codecs supported: wave, FLAC, ALAC, also .ogg support for lossy files
6) 60+ GB, or as much HD as is possible
7) 30+ hours battery life
8) Organization by folder
9) No need for any extra software (i.e. drag and drop USB mass-storage compatible)
10) Small enough to fit in pocket with a pair of IEM's
11) Nice long warranty
12) An EQ that can be used subtractively and doesn't distort or degrade SQ
13) Gapless
14) Removable internal battery (doesn't have to be a stock AA or something similar, just a removable battery like on my old Zen Micro. This way, I can take multiples along with me and extend battery life)

What I really don't care about:

Color screens, photo and movie support, those ultra-intuitive controls, style and looks, FM tuners, recording and line-in, BBE and similar sonic gimmicks, useless peripherals (remotes, etc).

Basically, I want a really good, barebones player that's designed from the ground up to be used with high-end portable and stationary stuff. I also want to have the ability to sample sound at any point in the signal path (true digital and analog outs).

I'm guessing that this will never happen, and these conditions will never be met. I don't think that with the current technology, a player can have a high-quality DAC and headamp, provide 30+ hours of battery life, and still fit in a pocket. Unless there's some new tech on the horizon that I'm not aware of. There isn't a large enough market to invest in the kind of research that one would need to produce this kind of player, and the most we can hope for is a trickle-down effect from other industries that lets us assmble existing pieces into what we need.

But, real digital and analog line-outs are nice. I wish more players had them. They're not all that hard to implement (I think?). Removable batteries are great too, I wish more players had them.

 

[Barney Rubble]

Unbreakable crashable

60 GB ipod Nano

That is all for me

 

[The_Duke_Of_Eli]

> 100GB
> Polycarbonate screen, annodized frame (à la Ipod Mini)
> OLED 3" 265k+ resolution colour screen
> Two headphone jacks (tired of using cheap splitter)
> Ipod-esque menu system
> Hardware and software lock switch
> Included external microphone (that pops out)
> Built-in stand for video watching/recording/line out to tv
> Native FLAC, OGG, WAV, WMA at 320kbps
> Drag and drop
> Wireless transfer to duck with WUSB (wireless USB)
> Music download/offload through hotspots (<--- would be awesome)
> 3 year warranty *drool*
> Replaceable battery (<---- should be standard on ALL PLAYERS!)
> Included case
> FM tuner/transmitter/recorder
> Optical Line out
> Kitchen sink
> At least PX-100 quality headphones included (<-- is it so hard to NOT include buds?)

 

[Thisp]

gapless playback

Vorbis, MPC, FLAC, and latest XviD support. It should be able to play.. say, the same as what VLC can play.

Rechargeable yet replaceable battery. Rio Karma's interface. Finding the exact spot you want in a song is so much better when you have a wheel to fast forward to it.. a physical wheel. One that doesn't break like the Rio's did.

A headphone jack that doesn't break over and over like the iAudio X5L's does.

A decent hard drive. Not bulletproof.. just not Karmaish.

Rio DJ

UMS

Parametric equalizer

I would pay up to $500 for such a player. Why so much? I have been through four Rio Karmas. One used that was destroyed on arrival. One that came new from a retailer with a screwy HD on arrival, then DOA. Another with a bad headphone jack after a year of use and an eventual HD failure, and another that had the headphone jack die prematurely.

I had an iAudio X5L.. within a month or two, headphone jack was broken. Same happened to the second one, it just took longer.

I don't abuse these.. if I did, my old CD player would be not only dead but probably in pieces by now. Durability would, to me, be worth $500 if the player had all the aforementioned features. Even for just 20 gigs.