[mrpspfreak]

My limit is $200 and I need 16gb; something that can drive a pair of SA 6s. The best I've seen is a Fuze, but is there something better for the price that I'm not seeing?

 

[ben7337]

what about the cowon d2? I was gonna say it is only like $211 if you could wait a bit longer for the price to drop or pay a tiny bit more, but it looks like it just dropped to $198.50 or $194.99 from jet audio, and both can be gotten with free super saver shipping, so as long as there is no tax and you are in the USA you should be fine.

Amazon.com: Cowon 16 GB Portable Multimedia Player (Black): Electronics

 

[panda]

Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio - Search Forums

 

[mrpspfreak]

A good number of my music is in AAC format though, which the D2 doesn't support. Plus heard Cowon has bad customer support.

 

[western120]

You should look into samsung P2 players if you want amazing sound quality. I have used sony, cowon, sansa, zune in the past. And IMO the best audio quality is offered by samsung.

 

[bangraman]

A 16Gb Zen is $160. SQ-wise it's going to be at the top end, and in terms of general usability it's not too bad either. If you're in the US, although I don't know what it's like I guess the Zune is also a contender. The Sony's - fine, and they're back to 'feeling' like a Sony but are not exceptional in terms of usability or sound quality (the EQ is better though) although they do some things better than the Zen.


If you asked me what to buy though I'm going to say the Nano... because for me, SQ isn't the be-all and end-all (especially given the minuscule real-life differences these days), but since it's something I'll be using every day it has to have utility and music-friendly features. So I look for a balance of all of those attributes. As much as I might dislike the Apple hegemony, I have to concede they have music usability and general utility down pat, and am still surprised how behind other also-rans are in some of these attributes and why they are still not getting a clue after what... 5 years?


Oh, and the D2 is overrated. It's good, but you don't really buy it for the sound... you buy it for the nerd.

 

[tds101]

iAudio D2 or the Sony players, all sound amazing.

 

[mrpspfreak]

Yeah, I was considering a Nano too, especially since the 1st gen Nano is the only player I've had a good experience with, all my songs are in iTunes already, and I know it's durable (it's been proven to survive being driven over by a car). For that price though, I'd sooner get a Zune. Those players seem far to expensive to me though, so that's why I'm leaning towards a Fuze. It might take a while to get my songs off iTunes, but I guess it'll be worth it for the price.

 

[straden]

iphone 3g sounds better than most of ipods i've listened to.
I like sony SQ as well little warm and boomy.
D2 is good with some EQing.

 

[Mors]

I'd say for SQ in that kinda price range you'd be looking at:

Cowon D2
Cowon iAudio 7
iRiver Clix

As far as I'm aware, the Cowon's are as good as the same thing from a SQ point of view.

I'd take the Clix myself, it's awesome. I've just bought an a818 and it's not good enough to lace my Clix's boots! :|
The Cowon's support lossless though

*edit*
I've just read you said 16gb, so that rules out my reply lol

 

[shigzeo]

true: nano 4g should not be too much more than 200$ and it does aac, gapless, has very low level of hiss (less than d2), has a better bass resolution and has better stereo separation.

clix is okay. i sold my d2 long ago when i heard the touch 1g, so... you can understand how i feel about its 'sound quality'.

 

[Ninja13ear]

Quote:

Originally Posted by western120 /img/forum/go_quote.gif You should look into samsung P2 players if you want amazing sound quality. I have used sony, cowon, sansa, zune in the past. And IMO the best audio quality is offered by samsung.

i cant say that the P2 has better SQ only because i sold it awhile ago. it did have very good SQ, but so do the zune and D2. i would recommend the P2, but i had mine break and had to return it 4 times. twice it was the HP jack, and the other times it just died. samsung has very good customer support though. i think i was one of those rare cases though. i still recommend it as well.

 

[Maxvla]

I can fully recommend the Zune. No shortcomings at all. Great sound quality, bright clear screen, solid interface, reasonably fast sync speed, and the auto sync with folder option is really a standout feature. All I do is rip my cds to this folder plug the Zune in and it automatically syncs them to the player.

The player hangs occasionally when you move rapidly through menus, but its a simple hold up on the pad and hold the left (back) button for a couple seconds and it reboots 5 sec later you are ready to play.

 

[toughnut]

seriously, zune can hang? i guess anything related to MS is fated to hang haha.

currently i'm eyeing on zune flash but the capacity is too low as my primary portable. i only use one player all this while.

 

[Maxvla]

16gb is a lot of music. although its not ideal, if you absolutely need more space you could setup alternate auto sync folders, then just rename them to the right auto sync folder and then let it resync everything so you'd have whatever you wanted on there at the time. It would take a while to resync 16gb, but it's a work around if you really need more than 16gb. I have about 40 albums on my 8gb and its not even half full. I can't really imagine needing more than 100 albums on my player and thats only 8gb, do you seriously need more than 200 albums at your fingertips?