AKICOLJ

[bellinghman]

It appears that the battery on my MP3 player is dying - from full charge to dead is now about 2 hours. Now, I could go looking for a replacement battery, but I've been wondering about a new player for a while. The current one is a bit bulky (partly due to the CF slot, which is a feature I no longer need), and I'd be interested in something with a bit more capacity.

So, peeps, any recommendations?

• Should be >60GB


• Must not require iTunes


• Should be able to recharge over some form of USB (MicrosUSB would be a bonus)


• Obviously, able to play MP3 - but FLAC support would also be nice


• Decent size screen so I can glance down and see what's playing easily

No radio, video, calendering apps or other such cruft needed.

Comments

[gailsedotes.livejournal.com]

creative seems to be your best range

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Counterbid:

Go on eBay and look for a second-hand iPod 5G with 80Gb hard disk. That's the last of the classic hard disk iPods to use a Wolfson DAC and the old software. You can provision it with MP3s from a wide range of third party music management apps, not just Apple's own; no need to jailbreak it. The sound quality is superior to the successor, the iPod Classic. You may need to replace the battery ... but mine's still going strong. If Apple really offend you, you can vape their firmware and install RockBox, and still have that lovely Wolfson DAC and the nice colour screen and cheap third-party batteries and peripherals. Oh, and it charges over USB and has a colour screen capable of playing (low res) movies and with RockBox it can play FLAC, give you an offline WikiPedia browser, and even runs DOOM ...

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Sounds good - I may just check.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Just to clarify, you're looking for the Fifth Generation ipod. Plastic front, colour screen, click wheel. Note that the front is transparent and flat, with sharp edges; if the front is curved, you've got either a 4G (smaller screen, max 60Gb disk, but will still do what you want) or a newer 6G (DO NOT WANT).

Remember: flat front, colour screen.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

So this eBay auction then?

(I must admit, the Cowon J3 is a very shiny beast, and tempting for the sleekness. But barely larger capacity than this Zen Vision W, and a lot more expensive than a second hand 5G.)

What's the play time like on the iPod?

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's the one. (Third shot shows the slightly transparent hard edge on the front.)

IIRC play time on the iPod was around 12 hours. Caveat: that's my runtime -- with volume up to the max and the display backlight also on. Officially they say 20 hours on a new battery pack. As it's an iPod, replacement battery packs are readily available.

[jhnc.livejournal.com]

32 GB Cowon J3 with a 32GB micro SD card?

Micro USB connector.
MP3/2, WMA, OGG, FLAC, APE, WMV and a bunch of video formats.
3.3" 480x272 AMOLED screen.
Reputed to have exceptional sound quality.
64h runtime (11h for video).

Things you didn't want:
Video playback.
JPEG viewer.
FM radio.
Mic/Line-in/TV-out.
Recording capability.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Very pretty, very tempting.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

I'm now getting tempted by the Cowon X7 ... 160GB! Only just released in Korea, though.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

It occurs to me that if you can find one that takes SDXC cards -- the new bloatworthy SD card standard that runs from 32Gb to 2Tb (eventually) -- that might be the way to go for future-proofing your music collection. It'd have to be a very recent one, though.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Now that is a thought. It's a shame that technology is so new that I can't find one yet, but (like the X7) maybe in a few months.