[canikickit1]

I currently have a 80gb ipod classic rockboxed and am looking to upgrade my player. My initial intention was to cop a Cowon J3 but was wondering what else would be a good fit.
 
I am primarily looking for great SQ, great battery life, and easy UI. 
 
I would dive in to get a Colorfly C3, but the tiny UI is what scares me. Any current Cowon model that matches the quality of the J3? not really looking for Android versions

 

[MrViolin]

hifiman h901 should be coming out soon. 

 

[canikickit1]

Im leaning towards the cowon-c2... Looks like there are custom ui to fix the stock one, has anyone ere upgraded from a classic to a cowon player? Is it that big of a difference?

 

[scuttle]

Quote:

Im leaning towards the cowon-c2... Looks like there are custom ui to fix the stock one, has anyone ere upgraded from a classic to a cowon player? Is it that big of a difference?

 
The Cowon has much better EQ and a more powerful amp that will drive more demanding IEMs and phones - which will only matter if the the phones/iems you want to use will clip with the ipod. The ipod already has inaudibly low noise and jitter and a reasonable frequency response graph, so the upgrade in sq - except in two the cases above - that you would get with any player is placebo level.
 
A J3 would certainly give excellent battery life, opinions vary on the UI - few people would say that it is as good as the iPod. My advice would be
 
1. Ignore the people telling you to "upgrade" to hilariously expensive "audiophile" players 
 
2. Use anythingbutipod to do your research on players - posters and reviewers are much knowledgeable there and you can find real bench test results, which are always a nice check on hype and placebo effect
 
3. Put off upgrading for another 6-12 months: the Android scene is changing and you should see improvements in price/performance in this time
 
If you want more battery life in the meantime you could buy a cheap Fiio pocket amp and let this share the load.

 

[Achmedisdead]

Quote:

 
 
1. Ignore the people telling you to "upgrade" to hilariously expensive "audiophile" players 
 
 

 

 
Agreed 100%.

 

[canikickit1]

The Cowon has much better EQ and a more powerful amp that will drive more demanding IEMs and phones - which will only matter if the the phones/iems you want to use will clip with the ipod. The ipod already has inaudibly low noise and jitter and a reasonable frequency response graph, so the upgrade in sq - except in two the cases above - that you would get with any player is placebo level.

A J3 would certainly give excellent battery life, opinions vary on the UI - few people would say that it is as good as the iPod. My advice would be

1. Ignore the people telling you to "upgrade" to hilariously expensive "audiophile" players 

2. Use anythingbutipod to do your research on players - posters and reviewers are much knowledgeable there and you can find real bench test results, which are always a nice check on hype and placebo effect

3. Put off upgrading for another 6-12 months: the Android scene is changing and you should see improvements in price/performance in this time

If you want more battery life in the meantime you could buy a cheap Fiio pocket amp and let this share the load.

Thanks for the insight, I ended up looking at the colorfly players as well and saw your post. It makes me wonder how much the source really matters in terms of sq. I've always regarded 3 things that matter in sq from most important to least

1. Quality of music file
2. Quality of iem/headphone
3. Source

It definitely is pretty tempting to upgrade from the classic with the assumption that technology in amps and what not has improved in the last 5 years (bought my 80gb classic off Craigslist for $80, secondhand.) at the moment I have a CMoyBB amp that has an LOD that can ease the load off my iPod.

It definitely is intriguing to see how much a colorfly or hi-audio player makes a difference in the reviews I did see. On the other hand, it definitely makes me wonder if that is the placebo affect in action

 

[Achmedisdead]

If your classic is Rockboxed then the EQ is actually better than that of a Cowon...... 10 fully adjustable bands as opposed to 5 semi-adjustable on the Cowon.....it just lacks the BBE stuff that Cowons have. So getting an LOD cable to use with an external amp is a great first step to take, and you may decide you don't need to go any further for a while, unless you feel like upgrading whatever headphones you are using. .

 

[scuttle]

Quote:

If your classic is Rockboxed then the EQ is actually better than that of a Cowon...... 10 fully adjustable bands as opposed to 5 semi-adjustable on the Cowon....

VERY good point. Except that the guy said that he had the "Classic" and Rockbox isnn;t stable for complete for the classic..? Oh, but he says he's using Rockbox - my brain must have skipped over that once I saw "Classic." Maybe he's using the term generically to include all the fullsize non-touch players?
 

.it just lacks the BBE stuff that Cowons have. 

 
The BBE stuff is excellent though. I think you can try it out on the free "JetAudio" player you can download for a PC.
 
 

So getting an LOD cable to use with an external amp is a great first step to take, and you may decide you don't need to go any further for a while, unless you feel like upgrading whatever headphones you are using. .

 
I'm going to disagree with this one and repeat that iPod amps provably have too little noise to hear, so using an external amp is pointless unless you are using phones demanding enough of power that you are getting clipping. 

 

[scuttle]

Quote:

It definitely is intriguing to see how much a colorfly or hi-audio player makes a difference in the reviews I did see. On the other hand, it definitely makes me wonder if that is the placebo affect in action

 
Go to anythingbutipod and take a look at the reviews of the "audiophile" players there - serious reviews by competent people who don't have a financial interest in pleasing a potential sponsor/advertiser. They're pretty damning. Eg
 
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62111