[Achmedisdead]

  For the joker who feels we have been 'spoiled by ipods', I dont know of a simpler UI than the iPod Classic, but guess what - the clickwheel works. I curse the day I gave mine to a former girlfriend after I got a newer, shinier DAP with a touchscreen - its a minor miracle that Apple are still stocking them at all. 

 
The clickwheel is great, except for one thing....I would prefer that there were separate dedicated volume controls. I solve that issue by using an LOD and amp, even though most of my headphones really need no amp. 

 

[estreeter]

ROFLMAO - plug 'NW-ZX1' into Google Image search - I dont know if the output varies depending on your region / safesearch settings etc, but mine returned an image of a rather buxom Japanese girl among the expected images of the upcoming Sony DAP  
 
Of course, that could just be Google Analytics deciding it knows what I like, but none of the other images appear to be in that vein. I'm running the latest version of Chrome, if that makes a difference, and she *is* clothed - I take no responsibility for anyone plugging 'nude Sony DAP' into their search engines.  
 
(ok - looks like we have a site with banners that work off the 'sex sells' mantra - still funny IMO)

 

[kova4a]

  For the joker who feels we have been 'spoiled by ipods', I dont know of a simpler UI than the iPod Classic, but guess what - the clickwheel works. I curse the day I gave mine to a former girlfriend after I got a newer, shinier DAP with a touchscreen - its a minor miracle that Apple are still stocking them at all. 

 
Well, honestly, the DAP I had most fun with and liked the most form-factor and usability-wise was the 3rd gen nano. Still, I see it all around me and in various complains here and people don't realize that Apple has invested millions upon millions of dollars till people could have the last few gens of ipods with their superior ease of use. In comparisons Chinese DAP manufacturers barely have the money to pay the uninterested and lazy software engineers at Rockchip for a half-a**ed software support because of their limited production and resources. "Simple" is in the sense of having only browsing by folders and no tags or anything and that's it - not in the Apple sense like with the first iphone "it's so simple and easy to use" coz it might look simple and easy to use but a huge team of highly-experienced and highly-paid software engineers made it look that way and that doesn't mean it's simple to make.

 

[gelocks]

I'm actually contemplating buying one of those modded 240GB Ipods, Rockbox it and also get a Fiio X3 and alongside my Cowon compare sound quality, battery life, any bugs, etc... Has anyone done this?
(yeah, I'm at work, lazy, and don't want to search! LOL ).
 
 
Thanks.

 

[DMinor]

LOL. Back to iPods again. Nah....audiophiles will never go back to touch those non-audiophile looking pods supported by free Rockbox developed by a bunch of amateurs. If the ipods are so good, then why do they need to be modded?
 
In my opinion, the audiophile daps should be made by dedicated audiophile companies with firmwares developed by professionals. The audiophile daps will never require modding.

 

[kova4a]

  In my opinion, the audiophile daps should be made by dedicated audiophile companies with firmwares developed by professionals. The audiophile daps will never require modding.

Well, that's quite a statement given how Red Wine Audio is modding not only ipods but AK100 and AK120. There are also X3 mods etc., so you get my point.

 

[H20Fidelity]

   
The clickwheel is great, except for one thing....I would prefer that there were separate dedicated volume controls. I solve that issue by using an LOD and amp, even though most of my headphones really need no amp. 

You bad boy you, living like a gangster.

 

[lee730]

 
You bad boy you, living like a gangster.

 
nothing "beats" and amp .

 

[CosmicHolyGhost]

I just recalled that didn't AK100 started off with some firmware glitches with apple files, and that it didn't support gapless from the beginning....
 
The company is probably 10 times bigger than ibasso and AK100 costs twice as much as DX50....
 
so are they included in this bashing of DAP?

 

[SDBiotek]

While a lot of these audiophile DAPs are flawed, the good news for us is that there are multiple manufacturers, who are offering good sounding products. Hopefully over time there will be increased competition in this segment, and they will need to focus more on usability if they want their products to stand out from the crowd. Sony entering the fray with its new player may help to pressure the smaller companies to step up their games. It's hard to guess, though, because expectations in the US market are a lot different from those in other parts of the world. For better or worse, "iPod" means the same thing as DAP or MP3 player to most people I know. The US market can be tough to crack because of the iPod and the fact that many now just use their smartphones for most of their music listening. I don't know if any of the boutique brands mentioned in this thread will ever try to seriously develop a DAP to appeal to a broader customer base in this country (not just to us jaded audiophiles). I think we're still in the early stages of the "high end" DAP product development. Here's hoping! 

 

[Achmedisdead]

 
You bad boy you, living like a gangster.

 

 

[DigitalFreak]

  I just recalled that didn't AK100 started off with some firmware glitches with apple files, and that it didn't support gapless from the beginning....
 
The company is probably 10 times bigger than ibasso and AK100 costs twice as much as DX50....
 
so are they included in this bashing of DAP?

I suggest you re watch my video. Near the end I mention the AK DAP's

 

[CosmicHolyGhost]

I suggest you re watch my video. Near the end I mention the AK DAP's

Sorry..... Will watch the vid later today.... Have just been reading the comments on this thread mainly....

 

[DigitalFreak]

Sorry..... Will watch the vid later today.... Have just been reading the comments on this thread mainly....

It's all good friend. By the way, I'm not trying to bash any companies. I'm just trying to be truthful about whats been going on in the higher end DAP market. I'm not saying make a UI like Apple I'm just saying when mobile is involved FW runs a close second behind audio performance and companies should take UI development more seriously. That's all I'm trying to say with the video and this thread.

 

[chesterqw]

sad state, china is taking over the audiophile dap market.
but their software side sucks.
 
manufacturers in the rest of the world is still mucking around in the mud with their mp3 player.