[travisg]

Get the 801 you won't look back

 

[shigzeo]

@OP - you may want to also ask if you need:
-gapless playback
-battery life
-low levels of hiss
-good low Ω driving ability and high volume with high Ω headphones
 
rather than the other stuff as these things will undoubtedly become issues for you in the long run. You can buy a great 'audiophile' player and find that its song gaps drive you nuts, or that hiss is unbearable. If you can, try some out before buying as audiophile players cost an arm and a leg and don't give the most basic of audio features that have been around since the LP record a fair fight.

 

[firsthand]

Check Out : http://anythingbutipod.com/
It has many information of many PMPs for you to choose.
 
For your high budget, I recommend you to use this gadget. http://anythingbutipod.com/2010/04/viliv-s5-review/
It is a PC in the PMP size. You can play music through foobar and connect it with the dac/amp to change the sound, so the sound quality will depend on the dac you use.

 

[shigzeo]

You mean you have to use Windows with this thing? Nasty backwards treatment of an audio player.

 

[firsthand]

Quote:

You mean you have to use Windows with this thing? Nasty backwards treatment of an audio player.

Why using windows is nasty for you?

 

[shigzeo]

On a portable player with a screen that size? I don't see how squinting in the darkness helps anyone use a player better. Or why you'd have to run through such a heavy OS just to hear music or watch movies. A portable is great because it is fast and nearly instant on and uses no power - bogging it down with Windows is a waste. The same would be true with OSX - I don't want that on my portalbe, I want a mobile OS optimised for speed.

 

[travisg]

If anyone needs more than 8 hours of battery life on a music player they may want to think about getting a job or a life. Who can listen to music for that long? If we are talking about sound I will take the 801 over anything else. I have owned them all and the 801 just sounds better and can play 24/96. But if it's gapless you must have by all means choose that over sound. And I use jh16's and hear no hiss other than what's already on the recording.

 

[Hero Kid]

Quote:

But if it's gapless you must have by all means choose that over sound. And I use jh16's and hear no hiss other than what's already on the recording.

If you want gappless albums on a non gapless device you have the option to rip the album as one file, thus alleviating the issue altogether.
Sure it's not a perfect solution but if you're dedicated it's probably to way to go.
 
Also if you don't mind me asking, are you using the GAME amp module or the standard (upgraded?) one?

 

[penartur]

Quote:

If anyone needs more than 8 hours of battery life on a music player they may want to think about getting a job or a life. Who can listen to music for that long? If we are talking about sound I will take the 801 over anything else. I have owned them all and the 801 just sounds better and can play 24/96. But if it's gapless you must have by all means choose that over sound. And I use jh16's and hear no hiss other than what's already on the recording.

8 hours of battery life means that you should charge your DAP every day, or you will suddenly left without music.
That's just "if anyone needs more than 8 hours of battery life on a cellphone/e-reader/watch" or "if anyone needs more than 2 liters tank in their car".

 

[Hero Kid]

Quote:

8 hours of battery life means that you should charge your DAP every day, or you will suddenly left without music.

 
With 8-10 hours of music playback I would be happy for (nearly) a week. I only listen to my DAP for (on average) 2-3 hours a day. So to say that an individual would have to charge their player every day to have music is only considering extreme/exaggerated examples. 
 

 

[Danneq]

Quote:

If anyone needs more than 8 hours of battery life on a music player they may want to think about getting a job or a life. Who can listen to music for that long? If we are talking about sound I will take the 801 over anything else. I have owned them all and the 801 just sounds better and can play 24/96. But if it's gapless you must have by all means choose that over sound. And I use jh16's and hear no hiss other than what's already on the recording.

Have you owned and/or heard ALL MP3 players? Well, color me impressed!
 
Bet ya haven't heard the Kenwood HDD series or the JVC XA-HD500. At least they are small enough to fit in your pocket...

 

[penartur]

Quote:

 
With 8-10 hours of music playback I would be happy for (nearly) a week. I only listen to my DAP for (on average) 2-3 hours a day. So to say that an individual would have to charge their player every day to have music is only considering extreme/exaggerated examples. 
 

There is some problem with your math, 2-3 hours a day with a 8 hours battery life means from 2.67 (ie 2) to 4 days off a single charge.
But, honestly, can you guarantee that you won't listen to music more than 4 hours on some day? And if you can't, then you should charge your DAP every day to avoid very upsetting situation when the charge will end in the middle of the day and you'll be forced to use subway or something for an hour without any music.

 

[penartur]

Quote:

Have you owned and/or heard ALL MP3 players? Well, color me impressed!
 
Bet ya haven't heard the Kenwood HDD series or the JVC XA-HD500. At least they are small enough to fit in your pocket...

As for the DAPs i've owned i can say that ipod video is a crap, zune 120 is a lot better, sony are even better (and i cannot distinguish between nw-hd5, nwz-x1061 and nw-a847), and kenwood hd60gd9 is the best. The leap between zune, sony and kenwood is not that large for me, although i believe that, in case of kenwood, it's just my ears.

 

[Hero Kid]

    Quote:

There is some problem with your math.

True but that is going on the assumption my listening habits are like that of a machine, and they aren't. I have owned numerous DAPs now with only ~10 hours battery life and it's more than enough for me.
I don't have any set listening patterns, but it's generally on a bus to and from school, walking home or in the library at lunch. My longest sessions are 8 hours driving to Melbourne and even then I don't listen to my music from start to end.
So in summary, ~10 hours perfectly fine by me.

 

[penartur]

Quote:

True but that is going on the assumption my listening habits are like that of a machine

On the contrary, i was saying particularly that you're not a machine and so you can't guarantee that you will listen music for exatcly 2-3 hours a day.
 
Also, there is another problem with such short-living DAPs. I know when to charge my DAP by its battery indicator: if there is only 1 bar left, it means that i should charge it today's evening (or i can forget to connect it to charger today, but it will still work tomorrow). If there is only 1 bar left on your 8-hours-DAP, it means that it could easily not to survive until evening, as there is only 2 hours left. So, basically, one should constantly remember that 2 days already have passed and they should charge their DAP.