What you're running and why:

[jthm]

Well to aid me in my decision between the multitude of portable audio machines out there I am curious as to what the rest of the crowd is running and why. Also it would be of great help to me if you could grade your machine based on these criteria:
-Battery Life
-Ease of Use
-Sound Quality
-Recording Ability(will it record lectures?)
-Functionality(can it do more than simply run music? ex. act as a portable storage unit for computer files)
-Portability(I want to fit this thing in my pocket)
-Longevity(I don't intend to upgrade for a long long time)
-Price vs Quality
-Features

 

[jthm]

So no audiophiles want to brag about their cool and unique rig? Heh guess not.....Well does anyone know a better community where I could inquire about portable audio players?

 

[Bolt San]

Implying that we're worse than other communities is a great way to get answers.
No, seriously.

 

[DanT]

Probably not the one you want but here goes.
Player Denon dcp-150
-Battery Life =Low- I didn't calculate because I constantly recharge but I would say 4-5 hours
-Ease of Use- =Press play and it play.EDIT = I'll add that it doesn't have anti-skip so you cannot run well you can run only if you hold the cd-player in your hands and don't move it too much. So that a minus for ease of use. for walking you can put it in his shoulder bag and it work fine
-Sound Quality =Excellent. Rumored to be the one of best portable
-Recording Ability(will it record lectures?)=None
-Functionality(can it do more than simply run mp3s?)None It play only CD.

Portability(I want to fit this thing in my pocket)-No it very big and need an external battery

-Longevity(I don't intend to upgrade for a long long time)- It been produce in 1991 and I'll keep it until I find something portable that sound better. I haven't heard any report of a better player but few has heard it.

-Price vs Quality= Cost me 360$ all include(shipping bank transfer) on Ebay germany in his box with all the accessory I pay for the rareness and collector item but don't regret it.
-Features=Bass boost, line out, mini-electrical digital out, dual 18 bit dac. IR remote, digital and analog volume control

As for Why I like the sound of it.

and probably I'm insane

 

[dffman2001]

Creative Zen Xtra 40GB

Battery Life - decent, usually not annoyingly short, but not excitingly long
Ease of Use - so-so, the jog lever sort of stinks, scrolling is too slow, difficult to find songs, silly case does not have window, a bit slow (waiting for hard drive to spin)
Sound Quality - pretty good, balanced sound, not as rich or bassy as a old PCDP i have
Recording Ability(will it record lectures?) - no
Functionality(can it do more than simply run mp3s?) - not really, hard to use anyways it there were
Portability(I want to fit this thing in my pocket) - small, but noticibly larger than the ipod or a minidisc player
Longevity(I don't intend to upgrade for a long long time) - quite uncertain, the 40 GB should be plenty, and a replaceable battery, but the build quality feels a bit flimsy and weak, coupled with craptastic warrenty
Price vs Quality - good deal compared to ipod with similar storage
Features - not too much special here, mainly used for mp3

 

[Garbz]

Mine is a 5 year old sony MDR-37 Minidisc player.

-Battery Life - about 9 hours with 2000mah

-Ease of Use - has play stop forward and back, plus buttons on the side not on the top. It really is a blast to use even though a coat pocket. I don't use the remote since i got tangled int he cord

-Sound Quality - Pretty good aside from the ancient Attrac Compression. This thing doesn't even have MD-Longplay that's how old it is. But i can't complain. It doesn't really sound bad and i never take my hd580s on the road.

-Recording Ability(will it record lectures?) - yes it does and it even has a mic input with gain stage unlike many new players. It records lectures just fine if you remember to take 2 discs (no long play)

-Functionality(can it do more than simply run mp3s?) - mp3s?????

-Portability(I want to fit this thing in my pocket) - fits perfectly into any pocket despite having 2 double AAs. In fact i mean perfectly. There's not a pocket i've tried that's too small. ALthough blaser pockets are a little deep. Fits perfectly into jean back pockets till i sit down.

-Longevity(I don't intend to upgrade for a long long time) - 5 years. hasn't died. WHen it dies i'll get a Hi-MD. I'm an MD fan.

-Price vs Quality - cost 270Euro in Austria 5 years ago. It's been dropped, stepped on once (repairs cost $30AUD)

-Features - it plays music. I think it also has a bass boost somehwere

But seriously it has all the standard recording edition trackmark options, with digital in, analogue in with audio line controll, and the ability to automatically split tracks if there's a 2 second gap. Although this doesn't work for optical.

 

[Morphling]

Player: 15 gig Dell DJ
-Battery Life: 16 hours claimed on the site I average 19 hours and some reviews average more than 20 hours
-Ease of Use: uses creatives menu's pretty easy to navigate with center scroll wheel
-Sound Quality: very good rumored to be one of the better players for sound
-Recording Ability(will it record lectures?) yes it has a built in recording function
-Functionality(can it do more than simply run mp3s?)It can only record and run mp3s
-Portability(I want to fit this thing in my pocket) about 7.6 ounces fits easily in my pocket
-Longevity(I don't intend to upgrade for a long long time)it's only been around since october 03
-Price vs Quality $199 for the 15 gig $251 for the 20 gig. very sturdy player made mostly of metal with rubber around the edges
-Features blue backlight, durable

 

[jthm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bolt San Implying that we're worse than other communities is a great way to get answers. No, seriously.

Well I've gotten more replies in the last hour or so

. And I was implying no such thing just that maybe since head-fi is more headphone oriented that there might be a community out there more oriented towards the portable audio unit itself.

Thanks for the replies so far guys.

Edit: Editted first post, meant can the player do things other than play music such as hard drive players acting as a portable HD or Hi-MD's being able to store computer files.

 

[John Reeves]

Hi JTHM,

There are a lot of opinions with regard to the best DAP, and it is very hard to make a decision. However, there is a dedicated DAP forum complete with reviews and discussions about all of the models. The reviews are as unbiased as possible and high end cans as well as regular ones are used as part of the reviewing process. Check out this link http://www.austinv.com/news.php

Regards

John

 

[jthm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Reeves Hi JTHM, There are a lot of opinions with regard to the best DAP, and it is very hard to make a decision. However, there is a dedicated DAP forum complete with reviews and discussions about all of the models. The reviews are as unbiased as possible and high end cans as well as regular ones are used as part of the reviewing process. Check out this link http://www.austinv.com/news.php Regards John

Thanks John,
I had actually already checked out the site but upon further inspection found some useful features like the collection of reviews on all the DAPs. I still feel getting personal experiences and having fine folks grade their equipment will be helpful too.

 

[DigDub]

Iriver IHP-100

-Battery Life
i charge the unit everyday, so not much of an issue for me.

-Ease of Use
navigation is easy to use. i use tree folder structure. menu levels are not too deep.

-Sound Quality
the sound is full and adjustable.

-Recording Ability(will it record lectures?)
thats what i do with my ihp sometimes.

-Functionality(can it do more than simply run music? ex. act as a portable storage unit for computer files)
yes. portable hard disk capability is very useful to me.

-Portability(I want to fit this thing in my pocket)
its roughly the same size as the ipod.

-Longevity(I don't intend to upgrade for a long long time)
should last you for quite a long time. the ihp is well-built and not many people reporting failures with their units.

-Price vs Quality
a bit on the steep side. but you get extra features like line/optical in/out, radio and recording.

-Features
the ihp has a radio, line/opt in/out and recording. its one of the most feature-laden dap now.

 

[Megaman]

IHP-140:

-Battery Life - Great! I'm getting about 15 hours

-Ease of Use - VERY easy to use. I don't know who spread the lie that the IHP is hard to use, but I can't even imagin where those people are coming from! It's the most straight forward machine I ever saw. I'm using the file tree mode and all my files are very organized. I can get to any song I want in a few seconds.

-Sound Quality - Really good. Very deep, very adjustable. Could be a little more powerful though.

-Recording Ability - Yup. It's have a very sensitive internal mic (you can also use external mic if you want). I'm using this feature quite daily actually.. I'm recording lectures. You can record in WAV or MP3 (you can even choose the bitrate). The recording quality is awesome.

-Functionality - It's also an extrenal HD (you just plug the USB and Windows recognize it as a drive - no drivers needed). You can store whatever you want on it. It's also have FM radio, optical in/out, and text files displaying ability.

-Portability - It's very small. A little bigger then a credit card.

-Longevity - It's build extremely well and not known for any specific problem.. Should last quite long.

-Price vs Quality - It's pretty pricey, but at the end of the day you get what you paid for.

-Features - I already listed the main ones above.. It also comes with a great case and LCD remote.

 

[jthm]

See this is where it's tough, I hear awesome reviews of a product and then I hear the complete opposite from embittered people who feel they were screwed out of 300+usd.

I think I've narrowed it down to either the Creative Zen Touch, Rio Karma, iRiver iHP 120 or Sony Hi-MD NH900. How I shall decide from here I have no clue. Guess I should probably wait til the 900 and Touch are out

 

[Luke]

I've got the Creative JB3, I bought it in June 2002. I have no plans of replacing it any time soon.
-Battery Life 22 hours with two batteries, which means it's always charged, power is not even an issue. I tested this last winter, it ran 22.5 hours straight playing 160 kbps files randomly.
-Ease of Use very easy, especially since the firmware has been updated so many times. It's been around a while, so a lot of the kinks that are associated with new players have already been ironed out over the years.
-Sound Quality audiophile quality, IMHO
-Recording Ability(will it record lectures?) Yes. And you can record directly to the player from an analog source, if you have to. You can also transfer files from one JB3 to another via firewire.
-Functionality(can it do more than simply run music? ex. act as a portable storage unit for computer files) It can store any type of file, but requires it's own software to transfer, which is included.
-Portability(I want to fit this thing in my pocket) Hmm, you better wear pants with cargo pockets ... the leather glove case has a belt clip.
-Longevity(I don't intend to upgrade for a long long time) The JB3 is a friggin' tank. Mine fell from the top of my refrigerator onto a clay tile kitchen floor just the other day, bouncing on the frige door and my kitchen counter on the way down. It's still running like a stud. (it had the leather glove case on)
-Price vs Quality It's a buy.
-FeaturesIt's easier to list the features it DOESN'T have. It doesn't have gapless play (yet). And the OS is proprietary. It doesn't mix frozen margaritas yet either, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was included in the next FW release.