[Duffy1207]

Are there any better sounding HDD based player's than the iPod classic?
Surely there must be, I've heard the iPod's sound isn't too good.

 

[Gow]

All that is pretty much left is Zune 80, soon to be replaced by the 120 for the same price.

The rest have gone on a flash memory release only spree, which is sad.

 

[frozncore]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duffy1207 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Are there any better sounding HDD based player's than the iPod classic? Surely there must be, I've heard the iPod's sound isn't too good.

If price isn't an issue, then try a Kenwood Media Keg HD60GD9EC

 

[Duffy1207]

Hmm, it does seem like portable HDD music players are dying out. By the time I can afford an upgrade, though, you'll probably be able to get 64 gig flash players anyway

 

[Duffy1207]

That Kenwood looks very nice.
I'm not currently in the market for a player, but having not long ago discovered half decent earphones and head-fi, I'm trying to work out how I know if it's my player or my headphones that cause some of the bad points I can hear in my music. Very newbie question, but how do I differentiate the sound of my source (30 gig ipod video) and my headphones?

 

[Chri5peed]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duffy1207 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hmm, it does seem like portable HDD music players are dying out. By the time I can afford an upgrade, though, you'll probably be able to get 64 gig flash players anyway

HDD DAPs are beginning to die out. Entirely because you can fit or soon will anyway, 100s of GBs on SD cards.

 

[mudbone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by frozncore /img/forum/go_quote.gif If price isn't an issue, then try a Kenwood Media Keg HD60GD9EC

That kenwood looks good, I could not tell by the info on that page,but does that player have a built in amp?

 

[Zanth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chri5peed /img/forum/go_quote.gif HDD DAPs are beginning to die out. Entirely because you can fit or soon will anyway, 100s of GBs on SD cards.

Soon isn't soon enough! So far the largest capacity on the market is 160 GB iPod Classic. Ideally Tuesday will see an announcement of an even larger unit, 250 or 320 GB. It will be quite a while before we see 10x the solid state storage we see today. Not because it is impossible, or even cost prohibitive, but because companies won't want to match the tech right away in hopes of milking us along as much as possible with newer and better units each subsequent year.

For those of us that want tons of storage on the go, hdd daps are the only way to fly. I'll suffer a bit from not having the absolute best sounding unit so long as I can use a dac/amp combo which will dismiss the stand alone dac anyway.

 

[paulr]

What about an iriver h140 which has spdif output and can run rockbox?

 

[frozncore]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mudbone /img/forum/go_quote.gif That kenwood looks good, I could not tell by the info on that page,but does that player have a built in amp?

Yes it does, however at 8mw the internal amp is fairly weak.

 

[WiredCon]

I had a chance to compare couple of sony Walkman Mp3 players, iPod Classic 5.5, D2, and Keg.

I've used shure 530 and Kenwood Media Keg was a clear winner. I'm not sure if anyone can find a better DAP player without an extra amp.

 

[tds101]

Link to AudioCubes & the Kenwood Media Keg: AudioCubes.com - -

 

[tds101]

OOPS - double post!!!

 

[nightsnail]

Quote:

Originally Posted by WiredCon /img/forum/go_quote.gif I had a chance to compare couple of sony Walkman Mp3 players, iPod Classic 5.5, D2, and Keg. I've used shure 530 and Kenwood Media Keg was a clear winner. I'm not sure if anyone can find a better DAP player without an extra amp.

Thats interesting what you have written about Media Keg. I am thinking about purchuase it, but is Headphone output: 10mW + 10mW (16Ω) too less to drive for ex SE 530 ? And what do you think about Rio Karma ( awesome output power ) ? Of course the most important for me is sound quality... ( with Shure SE 530 )

 

[Chri5peed]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zanth /img/forum/go_quote.gif It will be quite a while before we see 10x the solid state storage we see today. Not because it is impossible, or even cost prohibitive, but because companies won't want to match the tech right away in hopes of milking us along as much as possible with newer and better units each subsequent year.

I heartily disagree, unless you're some sort of prophet.


Not too long ago SD cards hit 4GBs, 'jesus' we thought, 'thats huge'. So, quite reasonably most folk thought we'd struggle a bit increasing size...but no, SDHC came out and in no time I've got a 32GB card...I see no 'milking'.

Your theory works in a monopoly, but there are numerous separate memory card companies. They want bragging rights, i.e. first 128GB card on sale...and no technology stays prohibitively expensive for long.

Capacity generally doubles, so 320GB will be reached in 3 jumps from 32GB.