Suggestions for MP3 player


Zelest

Zelest

Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2010
Messages
119
Age
42
Location
Sweden
So, my iPod decided to die on me after three years of almost 'round the clock service. So, I kind of want a new one. Rather than giving any more cash to Steve Jobs who is forcing me to install iTunes, I want another player.


However, I'm picky, so I have some criteria I want filled:


Space: At least 40 gb of space to store files (might bend on this... but I rather have a lot of space)


Files: Should be able to play more than MP3s. Preferably module-formats (mod, xm, s3m, etc) and different videogame-formats (nsf, spc, sid, gym, etc). Though custom firmware if necessary.


Size: Something fitting in a pocket, smaller than a DS.


Battery: Enough for some 10-20 hours should be enough


So.. basically.. an iPod which can run a few more formats and isn't an iPod. Any suggestions?
 
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The Sansa Clip+ is pretty nice. You can get the 8gb model and add a 32gb microsd card to meet your 40gb requirement


If you run Rockbox on it (as mentioned by guax), you can play virtually every audio format ever. All in a TINY and relatively cheap package with great sound quality. The battery life isn't quite as long as most modern players though, I get about 12-20 hours from a charge. The reason this varies so wildly is that playing from the microsd slot increases power consumption drastically. But even the low end of that meets your requirements. Highly recommended if you want an MP3 player just to play music (and

https://www.youtube.com/embed/1rVV_0xKmhw?feature=oembed).

For the module formats, I'm not aware of any portable devices other than those running Rockbox that can play them (except the Pandora, but that doesn't quite meet the size requirement. And a Pandora with 40GB worth of SD cards would be quite pricy for an MP3 player.).
 
Sansa e280 is pretty sweet. I think there are 4, 8, and maybe 16gb versiobs around, and the think has a microsd slot that supports the standard microSD size (anything up to 2GB, I think), but slap Rockbox on it, and it's really awesome.


Honestly, just about any player with Rockbox available for it will probably cover all your needs, but I only have Rockbox experience with the e280.
 
Thank you for all your suggestions! I'm currently looking at a Sansa Clip+, which looks nice and is on the stable list for Rockbox. Also, according to reviews, got very, very good sound. The iAudio/Cowon players look interesting and more appealing to the geek in me, however the rockbox compatible ones are nowhere to get hold of in Sweden. We're pretty quick with kicking out old stuff and pretend they never were on sale.


I'll head out to the store and see if they got the Sansa Clip+ in and we'll see if I'm geek enough to get rockbox running on it, or if I break it first thing I do. ;)
 
theyre unbreakable firmware wise, and they have a sansa recovery mode which works even with rockbox installed, and theyre very easy to reformat if you mess anything up, if you have any trouble, ask away, ive messed around with my sansa and rockbox a lot when the ps3 scene started evolving. and doesnt sweden have amazon or something? youre always better buying electronics online, better choices, better prices
 
I still use my good old iRiver H140 everyday with Rockbox.


The only downside is that it's a 40Go hard disk, so it's pretty sensible to shock.


When I bought it, it was one of the MP3 players with the largest capacity and with a pretty good sound quality.


It even have optical input and output!


Total overkill
laugh.gif
 
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Zelest said:
I'll head out to the store and see if they got the Sansa Clip+ in and we'll see if I'm geek enough to get rockbox running on it, or if I break it first thing I do. ;)
Click to expand...
Don't worry, there's a nice simple graphical installer now. ;)


In the early days of the Clip port, you had to manually patch the bootloader from an official firmware download and then compile Rockbox itself from source. It also tended to crash fairly often. But now it's all good. :lol:
 
I'll second the suggestion for the SanDisk Sansa Clip+ - it's a very good little player. My only gripe is that its output at maximum volume is actually not too loud - it's far below the limits required in the EU, going on other devices I have which I also know conform to those limits.


I also wanted to say thanks for the Rockbox info - I didn't know that the Clip+ worked with it. :D I'll have to look into that.
 
There we go, I bought a Sansa Clip+ and then installed Rockbox and I'm very appoint to say the least! It works like a charm and the sound quality is very, very nice. It was much cheaper than I thought (almost silly how my hearing phones are more expensive than the player itself). And best of all, Mr. Jobs don't get any of my monies.

Prometheus said:
My only gripe is that its output at maximum volume is actually not too loud - it's far below the limits required in the EU, going on other devices I have which I also know conform to those limits.
Click to expand...
I Found a "hack" which you can use to increase the volume. Set the region to North America, and the volume output will be much louder.

Austin25 said:
Um, the Pandora plays music. :lol:
Click to expand...
Yes, but I wanted a player sooner than Two Months ;)
 
Zelest said:
There we go, I bought a Sansa Clip+ and then installed Rockbox and I'm very appoint to say the least! It works like a charm and the sound quality is very, very nice. It was much cheaper than I thought (almost silly how my hearing phones are more expensive than the player itself). And best of all, Mr. Jobs don't get any of my monies.

Prometheus said:
My only gripe is that its output at maximum volume is actually not too loud - it's far below the limits required in the EU, going on other devices I have which I also know conform to those limits.
Click to expand...
I Found a "hack" which you can use to increase the volume. Set the region to North America, and the volume output will be much louder.
Click to expand...
I thought that that hack only applied to the original Sansa Clip, not the Clip+? Anyway, does Rockbox allow for a higher volume? Because if it does, I'll just install that. :p


Anyway, congratulations on the new MP3 player - enjoy it. :D
 
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Prometheus said:
I thought that that hack only applied to the original Sansa Clip, not the Clip+? Anyway, does Rockbox allow for a higher volume? Because if it does, I'll just install that. :p


Anyway, congratulations on the new MP3 player - enjoy it. :D
Click to expand...
Yep, it can pump out enough juice to give even too much volume to my rather demanding hearing phones. Best of all though is that I can listen to my favourite nes tunes directly without having to convert them to mp3. Been a lot of castlevania, megaman, battle of olympus and trancelvania remixes this last day :)
 
Gonna say Clip+ too.


My Rockbox'd Sansa E280 was the best portable audio player I have ever used, but I destroyed the headphone jack on it over a couple years.


I replaced it with a Cowon D2 after much praise of it's capabilities, and while it's audio quality and battery life is better, it's given me a strong hate towards touchscreens - especially in winter where I'm wearing gloves. The device itself isn't "pocketable" (only 3 buttons, can't change tracks etc in pocket, limited to pause/play and volume), and in general I waste too much time. Changing a track means having to pull the thing out of my pocket, unlock the touch screen, tap the screen a few times to switch to next track, relock the screen, then throw it back in my pocket.. with the E280 on rockbox, it was a matter of reaching into my pocket and pressing the next button.
 
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Elanzer said:
My Rockbox'd Sansa E280 was the best portable audio player I have ever used, but I destroyed the headphone jack on it over a couple years.
Click to expand...

Here, too! I got mine from a coworker, and the headphone jack got unseated from the board. It was a little difficult to fix it, since I've never soldered anything before that, but I pulled it off. I then tried to update the official firmware on it but ended up flashing the device with firmware from a different e280 model, making mine totally unbootable (white screen). I fixed that too, though it was really difficult. The only other problem with mine that I couldn't fix was that the screen quality is absolutely awful. Scanlines rolling across the screen. Terrible... but otherwise the perfect player.
 
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