Looking for at 120+GB FLAC Player, dimensions L<=6 W<=3 D<=.5 Options

[Jonathan217]

Before we get started, I've Googled it.

I have a music library that expands at the rate of about one cd every month. I encode all of my music as FLAC files and then lock my little plastic discs away for safe keeping.

I had a Rockboxed iPod with a 60GB drive in it, but I have long since outgrown it. I could have expanded the Hard Drive, but I am looking for something with native FLAC support and better hardware.

I don't mind discontinued devices being listed, but I would like to see what is currently out there too. I'd say the player should provide a minimum of 3 hours of play time on a single charge, 8 would be 'cherry.'

I need to be able to put music on it with out proprietary transfer software.

The player will be plugged into a pair of ATH M50s and will be listened to by someone who puts his hands over his ears when a track from iTunes is played.

A good bonus would be support for 96khz/24bit files, but I'm not holding my breath.

Lastly, I'm looking at spending less than $200USD. If it is a little over budget and meet the aforementioned requirements perfectly, I'd still like to know about it.

Thanks in advance for your time.

[yourlord]

Still, it doesn't make sense.

Ipod classic 160GB from Amazon is $229
http://www.amazon.com/Apple-classic-Black-...ds=ipod+classic

Using FLAC -8, which tends to compress slightly better than ALAC, and assuming an average compressed audo file size of 30MB you can store about 5300 songs on the ipod classic 160GB.

Now, get a sansa clip+ 8GB from Amazon at $55
http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Sansa-Clip-P...eywords=clip%2B
add a 32GB microsd card at $21
http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Mobile-micro...s=32gb+micro+sd

You now have 40GB of storage.
Using Ogg Vorbis at q2 yielding ~96kbps files, averaging 3MB per file you can fit 13,300 songs on it. You can DOUBLE the bitrate/quality of Vorbis to q6, roughly 192kbps, which is audibly transparent to all but the most dog earred freaks of nature and you STILL can store over 6600 songs on it.. Perceptually the same audio quality as the lossless files, more of them, and a total cost of $76..

1/3 the cost of the ipod..

It's your money.. You can choose to waste it if you really want to.

This post has been edited by yourlord: Oct 26 2012, 18:03