[RMPNG]

Since we always talk about what we like, I think it would be good to hear what people don't like as well.

The Cowon D2 has been my biggest disappointment for quite a few reasons.

-Extremely steep learning curve. It took me quite a bit of time to become proficient with the...

-Unintuitive, hassle-filled UI. It takes multiple clicks to resume, even more to get to my music library, some scrolling to find what I want to listen to, and then I repeat all that again. This wouldn't be so bad if I weren't jumping all over the screen to get where I want to go. The tactile buttons may have offset some of my distaste for the GUI, but they are gimped to only one function, excluding the menu button (which you can hold for ~3 seconds to pause/play-- another waiting game).

-Cold, analytical sound. This is a bit of a subjective complaint, as I'm using my er6i's to judge (also analytical), but it makes listening to my music no fun at all.

-Bloated with mediocre functions. A dictionary, calculators, hiss-including voice recorder, and much more that could have been put aside for more important features like gapless.

-Gimped video quality. The cap at 320x240 is a waste for a such beautiful screen.

Also, don't comment on why people dislike x player. I'm hoping that no arguments arise

.

 

[krmathis]

iPod mini it would be.
Horrible battery time and quite large for what it was.

 

[DobsOnly]

Creative Zen V was the most disappointing player I ever had SQ wise.

 

[dissembled]

SQ wise the ZVM was pretty disappointing. Very grainy and muddy with my phones.
The Zune was slightly ahead but it still sounded hollow to my ears.

Video-wise though, the ZVM was pretty stellar.

 

[dura]

Ipods, especially the mini. I really wanted to love it, but the SQ was horrible, and batterylife was something like 5 hours max. I also found SQ of other ipods I tried not to my taste.

 

[SawaFish]

Cowon O2, although the video support and SQ was great. It didn't support playlists and broke after a week of use, also, the screen wasn't as good as I expected from a PMP. I'm happy with my S9 now though

 

[aloksatoor]

cowon d2 and the s9.... too cold and sterile for my tastes.....

 

[chongy5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by krmathis /img/forum/go_quote.gif iPod mini it would be. Horrible battery time and quite large for what it was.

You must be referring to the 1st gen iPod mini. I had a 2G and the battery life was rated at 18 hours but I (and many others) could get ~25+ hours out of the thing!

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chongy5 /img/forum/go_quote.gif You must be referring to the 1st gen iPod mini. I had a 2G and the battery life was rated at 18 hours but I (and many others) could get ~25+ hours out of the thing!

Totally forgot that there were two mini generations as well.
But yes, I mean the 1G.

 

[Geruvah]

So far, it honestly has to be every player I tried other than an iPod. No I'm no fanboy. Here's why:

Storage. Almost every one doesn't like to go above 30GB, and they already are as expensive or more than the iPod. And it's not as if the SQ is any better either. There's a huge improvement after I rockbox it and play with the EQ. I need my storage. It's the first upgrade I look for in a DAP. That upgrade, alone, eliminates 98% of what's out there.

[size=xx-small]What the heck? Why are you trying to be so small? A styus just makes using you more complicated. And your stylus is even smaller than contact lens removers.[/size]

The interface (from the ones I tried) aren't as fluid.

Those with more storage had things I just found annoying (Archos 5 had those annoying ads that can't be removed. Plug ins had to be bought. Software was still in beta. Slow interface. Etc...)

Trying too much to be like a Swiss Army Knife. I don't need or even remotely want a phone in my player. I don't want to pay a monthly plan or anything, I change phones every 2 years but I keep my player for much longer. I'd rather it excel in a few things than try to spread itself out thin. I don't want my music interrupted. The list goes on.

[size=xx-small]How can something practically perfect for me in every way manage to have the smallest things ruin it? Maybe if the company stopped being so greedy, gave better support, and maybe even give me an e-mail address to go to if I had any questions rather than a snail-mail mailing one...to start the list[/size]

Trying to be too small. The iPod has the amazing ability to be navigated by one hand in a fluid motion of your finger and needing very few clicks to get to where you want to go. It has a good weight to it and feels just right. The Cowon O2 seemed way too small. Archos 5 was still great, though I'd have to hold it with two hands, really (but that didn't give it minus points). I don't want a touchscreen so small that I need a stylus. Get rid of that. Why should I even be having another object to use such a thing? I dunno, it feels right for a Nintendo DS, but not for a media player.

[size=xx-small]People call the iPod using proprietary software because Apple is selfish. At least it can work for both Mac AND PC. What's your excuse, Zune? Would've been my 3rd choice.[/size]

Gapless playback. I thought after I saw that my iPod 5G can do it, ANY DAP can. I mean, that's what they're trying to go against, right? But no, it's actually hard to find a player that supports gapless playback. I've heard the excuses that it's hard to do it, but if iTunes and the iPod can do it, I don't want to hear excuses from a phone/pda/wifi internet capable/$2-300/touchscreen/etc... device. No excuses, you decided to just not include it and try to do something about it. The iPod did

[size=xx-small]If you know this scene and love the music that goes with it, forget a lot of players. Even a less-than-a-second gap ruins the album.[/size]

At first, I thought iPod bashers had some sort of credit, but no. I don't want to hear crap from them until a player comes out that does what the iPod, at least, does right.

 

[Tomikans]

Every Dap i owned.. i found pros and cons for each of them..

Samsung P2
Pros - Good SQ, Awesome Eq Option, Cool Options, Nice, light, solid Feeling, Screen is nice

Cons - Slow to the touch, no gapless, 16 gb isn't enough of space for me

Sansa Clip
Pros - Awesome SQ, Drag and drop, Super duper small, Flac!

Cons - Gapless

(keeping this thing because it's pros outweighs the cons)

Zune 120g
Pros - Really Good SQ , Big Screen, Felt like a brick, controls are nice, Storage

Cons - Gapless playing problems, no LOD

(Sold it because of the gapless problems and i already had a portable amp. So i decided to go back to the ipod)

Ipod Classic
Pros - Control Scheme that hasn't been changed, Itunes is an alright program, Storage Space, LOD, gapless

Cons - Don't like the SQ

(i decided to keep the ipod since i have and LOD with portable amp)

 

[shigzeo]

agree with tomikans but my biggest disappointment was probably the shuffle 2g and then the cowon d2 - both sounded worse than i had expected but the cowon was trying to do too many things and did not one very well so i was disappointed.

 

[onurrus]

Absolutely ipod nano 3g,After my iriver h10 has broken.I bought a nano which looks charming but it was a total disappointment about the SQ.It was too thin for me and I sold it other week. so I got an iriver clix+ and I am happy again

 

[Calexico]

Creative Nomad Muvo 256mb
iRiver T10 512mb
iPod 5.5G 80gb
Sansa Clip 4gb

I wasn't disappointed with any of them. My Clip has probably gotten the least use though.
The Nomad had no screen, but at the time, I didn't really expect one (it was before the boom in DAP popularity).
The iRiver T10 was bulky but sounded nice and had file browsing.
The iPod conveniently synced with iTunes which I was already using, had 80gb, and played videos (a feature that I used extensively for quite a long time, although it's old now).
The Clip has excellent sound quality but unfortunately I don't really have any high quality portable headphones, so I just stick with the iPod for the ability to hold all of my music. The Clip also has terrible handling of ID3 tags (almost half of my artists go to Unknown, even though they have English names, and lots of them don't even have accents in their names which seem to screw up the ID3 tagging as well). I only use it for the gym.

So I suppose I was least satisfied with the Clip, although I haven't been disappointed in any of them.

 

[EFN]

Stock iPod 5G. The headphone out is plain bland and lifeless. Considering that the Wolfson DAC have a stellar output through the Line Out, they should have done better with the internal amp section.

OTOH, the zune 30GB which uses the same DAC, have way better internal amp and I actually enjoyed listening to them straight out of the HP.