Do you have a portable Options

[jcrab66]

I have a Nomad Jukebox 3 and an Archos Gmini 220, both of which i use for taping. I do listen to my recordings on them too but i havent uploaded any mp3's to either of them...

[svzurich]

Agree. Both of my Iriver CD players have died, so I am back to using my old Panasonic recording walkman that I bought in Singapore in January 1996. Runs off 1 AA battery, can record radio or mic to cassette, and has lasted longer than any newer player I have owned.

Panasonic model RQ-XF50

[khiloa]

I have rio karma and love it!

Sorry if I've already posted this before.

[Nero]

What's the maximum capacity Karma available right now? I've been wanting one to use for FLAC decoding, but 20 GB just wasn't enough space for me. I'd consider 40 GB a minimum, and would prefer 60+.

And I've heard stories of hard disk problems in the Karmas. I hope these aren't too common.

I migrated from my Sony PDA a few months ago to a 30GB Creative Zen Nomad. But it only plays MP3. Haven't sought out firmware upgrades for it, though. At least it has a crossfade function that decently emulates gapless playback.

But a high-capacity Rio Karma would satisfy all my portable music needs. If my car system has a 2.5" 80GB hard drive, I don't see why the Karma can't have one too.

Patience.....I need patience.

[DonP]

But a high-capacity Rio Karma would satisfy all my portable music needs.  If my car system has a 2.5" 80GB hard drive, I don't see why the Karma can't have one too.

Maybe because it won't fit? I think the karma has a 1.8 inch drive.
The outside dimension of the case is 2.7 inches. A 2.5 drive would be really tight.

This post has been edited by DonP: Apr 9 2005, 12:09

[svzurich]

Made the switch 2 months back to Sirius satellite radio, ain't looking back! Sirius rocks!

Got the Xact receiver (the PDA looking one) with the "deluxe" boombox, battery pod, and car kit! I love it and the service!

[chemeye]

Creative Zen Micro -(silver)(5MB)

I got this one for its radio/radio record feature
It has a built in mic for voice recording which is a nice feature I'll probably never use..but I am a sucker for extras!(I could use my cell phone for voice recording or the digital voice recorder I also have-but how much voice recording do I really do???)

Zen Micro has good sound to my ears-the supplied earbuds are fine for me. I may get some more serious headphones at some point for more serious listening.

The vertical scroll/touch pad is admittedly a little "touchy" and inaccurate IMO

I may soon sell it (owned for a month or so) -
The cost of these type of players is really coming down as the capacity is going up..I would like to see FLAC support more available for the hell of it too.

I am more into a small player than one with weeks of music playing capacity. And in the case of the Zen Micro, I am a little displeased with it's size.
I was drawn to the iPod shuffle and creative v200/n200. But ended up with the Zen for its radio features and larger capacity after all

[DonP]

Made the switch 2 months back to Sirius satellite radio, ain't looking back!  Sirius rocks!

With what we're paying for connectivity now (phone, cell, basic cable (local channels), sat (everything else), internet) the last thing I need is another load on that pile even if it's only $10/month.

I have driven in areas where you go 5 or 6 hours with the car radio just scanning and not catching a station. If I lived there I would go for it in a flash. Here, regular broadcast is good.

This post has been edited by DonP: Apr 9 2005, 19:18

[Nero]

Maybe because it won't fit?  I think the karma has a 1.8 inch drive.
The outside dimension of the case is 2.7 inches.  A 2.5 drive would be really tight.

Ah, good point. I wasn't so much thinking of fitting a 2.5" drive into the existing Karma case, but instead just thinking of the potential size of a 2.5" drive, battery, controller hardware, display, op/amp, DAC and headphone port all in once case. It would seem like those items could be packaged into an acceptably sized portable device.

Then again it probably doesn't matter. 1.8" drive capacities are going up, as with all other form factors. We'll have 100GB varieties of them soon enough.

I am curious, though, when technological growth in storage media will cause flash memory capacities to approach those of the smallest-sized hard drives. Even 100GB CF cards won't be too far off in the future. And unlike the ever-increasing storage demands of software applications and games, a 30MB FLAC file is a 30MB FLAC file.

Maybe I'll just hang on to my Zen for another couple of years, until I can have 200 hours of losslessly-compressed music on a portable player.

[DonP]

Ah, good point.  I wasn't so much thinking of fitting a 2.5" drive into the existing Karma case, but instead just thinking of the potential size of a 2.5" drive, battery, controller hardware, display, op/amp, DAC and headphone port all in once case.  It would seem like those items could be packaged into an acceptably sized portable device.

Consider existing players with 2.5 inch drives. Archos and Neuros. Many consider them to be too brickish. A little of that on the Neuros is due to the backpack concept, but it is available with 80 GB drive.

I am curious, though, when technological growth in storage media will cause flash memory capacities to approach those of the smallest-sized hard drives.

We are about there, with the 1 inch drives at 5 GB, but they are getting denser at the same time the flash is.

Even 100GB CF cards won't be too far off in the future.

I don't know what industry plans are, but CF advances may phase out as folks go for smaller rather than higher capacity. The action going forward may be with SD and XD formats. Think Ipod shuttle with swappable cards, then compare that to the size of a CF card. With cameras (I think the largest market for flash cards) there are few models left using CF. Canon was a holdout but recent models are going smaller.

  And unlike the ever-increasing storage demands of software applications and games, a 30MB FLAC file is a 30MB FLAC file.

Computers need more because capability grows, whether you like it or not. 100KB floppy was a lot when you had just plain text files. Through the years we added fonts, styles, imbedded pictures. What used to be a 1 page 1 kilobyte email now may be 1 page 100 Kbytes.

If "standard" music ends up being 24/96 5.1 channels instead of 16/44 2 channel, a lossless encoded track will grow a lot. Going forward, the trend may be that portable players have to do video (some do already), so storage requirements will rise.

[Nero]

If "standard" music ends up being 24/96 5.1 channels instead of 16/44 2 channel, a lossless encoded track will grow a lot.  Going forward, the trend may be that portable players have to do video (some do already), so storage requirements will rise.

Another good point, and one I hadn't thought of (at least recently). I still think the storage capacity/cost ratio will outpace the filesize growth of lossless encoding as we move to more channels and higher bitdepths as an audio standard. In other words, by the time my lossless music collection takes 2.5 times the previous space for the same number of albums, I'll have well over 5 times the storage capacity in all my devices (considering a timeframe of 3-5 years).

Funny that my first "real" PC had a 40 megabyte hard drive, and you can't even load WinXP in so little space nowadays. I have games that install into over 3 GB, even. I could have stored no more than ONE losslessly-encoded song on that hard drive. That was 15 years ago, and technology isn't advancing in a linear model, but closer to exponentially. The ground we've covered in the past 15 years will be equalled in less than 5 years, I predict.

Hence why I'm leaning towards not buying a new portable player until storage capacity growth goes well beyond what I'd consider my opportunity cost "threshold" now. I'm not spending ~$500 on a device that barely meets my capacity desires. Then again, I'm a gadget junkie. If I walk past a 40GB Rio Karma on sale somewhere, and I'm in the right mood, I'll buy it anyway.

[DonP]

I'm not spending ~$500 on a device that barely meets my capacity desires.  Then again, I'm a gadget junkie.

I still shudder when I think that I once spent that much on a 2 meg memory card for my first computer.

If I walk past a 40GB Rio Karma on sale somewhere, and I'm in the right mood, I'll buy it anyway. 

karma from ubid.com

This link is good for 3 days, but they may have another batch when this is gone.

[tgoose]

I have one that broke. Does that count?

[El Duderino]

IRiver ihp-120 here running Rockbox cutting edge build. Mp3, OGG, FLAC support and more codecs being added all the time! Ironically, despite being 2 years old, this is the first portable to support Replaygain (through Rockbox firmware). The sound quality is crisp through a pair of Shure E2c canal phones. Although discontinued, I recommend looking for an H120 or H140 to anyone who wants crisp sound quality and new, rapidly expanding firmware being developed by the community! Best wishes.

This post has been edited by El Duderino: Jul 31 2005, 03:13

[DreamTactix291]

Well I posted a long time ago but what I own has changed.

I now own an iRiver iHP-120 and H140 (this one was made after the name change ) both with Rockbox daily builds on them. The H140 gets used most now of course though

And yes the H100 owns so much now.

[Gallvs]

Well, yeah... This thread is pretty old.

When I voted I didn't have a portable. Now I own a Creative Zen Micro and I'm very happy with it.

[heavymetalwiseon...]

My portalbe is a Grundig one. It's nice and to be honest I don't really like to have one with hd. But after some things I read in a greek magazine, I think sometime in future get one with an hd. I really like a Creative one but I cannot recall the entire name. By no means iPod for me.

Edit: The one I like is the Creative Zen.

This post has been edited by heavymetalwiseone: Jul 31 2005, 09:10

[dobz]

I'm amazed at how many CD based players people have, thought thered be more flash players

I own a H140, it took me a long time to decide to buy it and i certainly feel i bought the right player at the right time, not really much out now that betters it either.

[jazznaz]

I'm happy with my 20GB Sony NW-HD5

I've heard so many people complaining about the software supplied, but I'm yet to have any problems with it at all...

[legg]

Sony Clie TJ37 here.
I have Aeroplayer installed and it can play ogg and mp3.

[rjamorim]

This poll is hopelessly outdated. Good measure of it is the 7th option.

When I voted on it, several years ago, I checked "No". Now, I have an Expanium and an iRiver iHP.

Someone should close this poll and start a new one.

[Casagrande]

Philips hdd 120.

[vinnie97]

This poll is hopelessly outdated. Good measure of it is the 7th option.

When I voted on it, several years ago, I checked "No". Now, I have an Expanium and an iRiver iHP.

Someone should close this poll and start a new one.

Yikes, no kidding...3+ years old and ogg vorbis has made quite the hardware splash since that time.

I've got the Iaudio I5 1GB flash player with amazing ogg vorbis support. Now if only gapless would become more commonplace...

This post has been edited by vinnie97: Aug 8 2005, 00:33

[sdexp]

We need more vendors into OGG. I know it will come someday.

[ching-3]

Sorry if this is off topic but, is it possible to make an iPod play vorbis files? If so, how?