[gooner265]

I'm really frustrated as my HD5 has given up the ghost and I loved it , great sound quality and more importantly GAPLESS PLAYBACK . After giving up trying to repair it ( new battery) not worked , I've decided to buy the 639 as they have a good deal here in the uk with the double memory offer at the moment ( 16GB for 8 for £87.00) even though I'll have to bite the bullet with no gapless play and no playlist on the go. Unless you guys know of any upcoming new players as an alternative?

Now all my music is unfortunately stored in Sonicstage so I will have to re - encode my cds to mp3 but I don't have a lot of space on my pc.
So would the best option be to buy two external hds one to store all my music in flac so as to never encode them again. Then to convert them to
MP3 and store them on the other External hd. That way I could then put them on the PS3 I will buy in the new year or is two HDs unecessary?

cheers

 

[Detritusdave]

Just get one external hard drive that's big enough to fit everything on, and keep in separate folders.

Doesn't the offer on the 639 end on 24th December here in the UK? Not sure, but definitely think I saw it somewhere.

 

[gooner265]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Detritusdave /img/forum/go_quote.gif Just get one external hard drive that's big enough to fit everything on, and keep in separate folders. Doesn't the offer on the 639 end on 24th December here in the UK? Not sure, but definitely think I saw it somewhere.

Yes it does , I have at least 500 cds and wasn't sure if 1 HD would be big enough to store all thse in flac .
I hear the Cowon plays Flac files does that support gapless playback ?
Just as a guide I listen to a lot of prog rock ( Porcupine Tree , Floyd etc so if I could get a player that does gapless with quality sound I would be willing to pay the extra cost , I don't like the tinny sound of the ipods although I appreciate headphones have a lot to do with it. I am currently using Shure E2cs which I like but would consider upgrading them too.

I just want quality sound, gapless and on the move playlists , I'm not bothered about video etc just music.

cheers

 

[walkingman]

That is what I would do. External drives are dirt cheap now. Convert to Flac, that way you do not have to re-rip your CD collection in the future whenever you want to re-encode. What I personally do is keep my Flac collection on my external drive and my lossy files on my notebook/DVD backup.

The offer ends 24th last I heard. Who knows what will happen then.

Edit: Definitely upgrade the e2c.

 

[digivate]

You can buy the same 16Gb Sony player from Amazon.co.uk for the same price, and with free shipping it actually works out cheaper, so I wouldn't worry too much about the offer on Advanced MP Players ending. That said, I don't know if the Amazon price is only that low so that it will compete with Advanced MP3 Players.

 

[walkingman]

Actually Amazon UK was the first retailer to push the price below £90, followed by AMP.

This offer will eventually end as this is a Sony initiated promotion called '16GB for 8GB' and Sony has been clear that this is a 'limited' time offer that will expire tomorrow. Obviously the retailers can charge whatever they want after that, though I highly doubt the discounts will go as deep as they are now.

 

[dura]

Quote:

Yes it does , I have at least 500 cds and wasn't sure if 1 HD would be big enough to store all thse in flac

Well, simple; say an average Cd in FLAC is 350 MB. Multiply by 500 and the answer is 175 GB. Buy a HD at least 250 GB and you're ready.

 

[Buckster]

some questions regarding my Sony 639

did the firmware update and now:

(1) don't seem to have any - at all album art thumbnails

(2) no photo thumbnails (jsut the Sony logo)

(3) no video thumbnails ?

also in the podcasts directory - why don't files that are in the root of that directory show up to be available to play ?

 

[wuwhere]

Get a 500GB or better yet a 1TB external HDD for your flacs. My buddy at work had a backup HDD in his PC and when his PC's power supply bit the dust, it took down both HDDs and he lost all of his downloaded MP3s and all of his digital pics.

 

[BloodSugar00]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gooner265 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I just want quality sound, gapless and on the move playlists , I'm not bothered about video etc just music. cheers

To the best of my awareness, only an ipod covers these 3 prerequisites you list. The Sony you are considering (or any Sony DAP post-sonicstage) will not provide on-the-fly playlist functionality, will offer gapless playback only with .WAV files (which aren't practical on such low memory capacity players due to their large size), but, will, IMO, provide very good SQ.

The Cowon offerings (D2, S9, iaudio 7 etc), will provide on the go playlist functionality, the ability to playback .FLAC audio files but won't provide gapless functionality. They do, however, provide decent-excellent SQ, particulary with added impedance or an amp (with low-impedance hp's); bass roll-off disappears then. The D2 offer a memory expansion facility which a massive bonus. [N.B.// The brand-new S9 might provide different and/or better SQ than the D2 and/or iaudio 7].

Ipods, however, provide gapless playack and on the fly playlist functionality, but do not provide playback of .FLAC (maybe if rockboxed they do?) and have a SQ and sonic signature that you are non too fond of. They have impressive memory capacity, however (well an ipod classic does, to be precise).

On the topic of digital storage of your CD collection, I agree with the posters above in that an external hard-drive is a good idea and system for this as they provide a convenient and compact storage facility/space/system/means, and are very cheap atm. I myself have recently aquired a Buffalo Drivestation, 1TB, and am very pleased with the purchase!

I'd also consider upgrading your heeadphones/IEM's.

 

[walkingman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buckster /img/forum/go_quote.gif some questions regarding my Sony 639 did the firmware update and now: (1) don't seem to have any - at all album art thumbnails (2) no photo thumbnails (jsut the Sony logo) (3) no video thumbnails ?

That's bizarre. The firmware update didn't change anything on my S639. I do know that for videos, you need to have a separate jpeg file to show the thumbnail, just like on the PSP.

 

[Buckster]

thanks - what about photos ?

I copied all my photos into the pictures directory, they're something like 300x500 res, all load up just fine - but I don't get any thumbnails ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by walkingman /img/forum/go_quote.gif That's bizarre. The firmware update didn't change anything on my S639. I do know that for videos, you need to have a separate jpeg file to show the thumbnail, just like on the PSP.

 

[gooner265]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BloodSugar00 /img/forum/go_quote.gif To the best of my awareness, only an ipod covers these 3 prerequisites you list. The Sony you are considering (or any Sony DAP post-sonicstage) will not provide on-the-fly playlist functionality, will offer gapless playback only with .WAV files (which aren't practical on such low memory capacity players due to their large size), but, will, IMO, provide very good SQ. The Cowon offerings (D2, S9, iaudio 7 etc), will provide on the go playlist functionality, the ability to playback .FLAC audio files but won't provide gapless functionality. They do, however, provide decent-excellent SQ, particulary with added impedance or an amp (with low-impedance hp's); bass roll-off disappears then. The D2 offer a memory expansion facility which a massive bonus. [N.B.// The brand-new S9 might provide different and/or better SQ than the D2 and/or iaudio 7]. Ipods, however, provide gapless playack and on the fly playlist functionality, but do not provide playback of .FLAC (maybe if rockboxed they do?) and have a SQ and sonic signature that you are non too fond of. They have impressive memory capacity, however (well an ipod classic does, to be precise). On the topic of digital storage of your CD collection, I agree with the posters above in that an external hard-drive is a good idea and system for this as they provide a convenient and compact storage facility/space/system/means, and are very cheap atm. I myself have recently aquired a Buffalo Drivestation, 1TB, and am very pleased with the purchase! I'd also consider upgrading your heeadphones/IEM's.

Thanks for your post ( and to everyone else) I can't believe in this day and age the three simple things I want cannot be found.
The biggest gripe for me is the gapless playback , maybe I should consider getting a second hand HD5 until something else comes out.
Think I will invest in a 1 TB hard drive and store all my music for the future , can I access the HD through a PS3 or do they have to be converted or would i be better looking into squeezeboxes etc. If i can do it through a one box solution as a PS3 I would . I am a bit of an audiofile so would play my favourite music on cd through my arcam system but was thinking of casual listening playing random playlists through my amp.

 

[walkingman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buckster /img/forum/go_quote.gif thanks - what about photos ? I copied all my photos into the pictures directory, they're something like 300x500 res, all load up just fine - but I don't get any thumbnails ?

The Sony is a bit fussy with pictures for whatever reason. I read somewhere that it will display pictures taken via digital cameras just fine, as long as certain EXIF data is present.

 

[Buckster]

ah thanks

all my photos are taken in RAW and these a processed into JPEG - EXIF should be complete but could well be something around this -c heers

Quote:

Originally Posted by walkingman /img/forum/go_quote.gif The Sony is a bit fussy with pictures for whatever reason. I read somewhere that it will display pictures taken via digital cameras just fine, as long as certain EXIF data is present.