My Creative Zen Touch that has lasted about 4 years died yesterday. Basically the hard drive is ****ed. I can't find any information about replacing the drive so basically I need a new player. This is what I liked about my Zen:

1) 19GB (my music totals about 15GB when converted to 320Kbps MP3)
2) Can be used as an external HDD through Explorer
3) Music can be simply dragged & dropped onto the player through Explorer
4) Great audio quality (much better than my friends' iPods at the time)
5) 24 Hour battery life (at this time this was far superior to iPods, since it's 4 years old and I use high bitrates, it's actually about 15 hours now)

So basically I would like to keep all of these positives in addition to more disk space and possibly video playback (although this isn't absolutely necessary). I was looking at the iPod Classic 120GB but it's pretty expensive and I'm saddened to hear that you still have to use iTunes or an equivalent application to transfer music. I also have no idea how the audio quality compares to my Zen.

All of my music is in WMA Lossless format (FLAC doesn't support embedded album art and I can't get FLAC tags to display in WMP11 no matter what program I install that's supposed to provide this support) so a down-side to an iPod is that I'd have to convert it all to Apple Lossless, which either means I need to use up twice as much space on my HDD (keeping a playlist in Apple Lossless in order to sync with the iPod) or I need to move over to iTunes, which I don't want to do. A player that supports WMA Lossless would be fantastic but I don't mind too much if I have to convert it all to VBR MP3, AAC, FLAC etc., as long as the player also supports dragging & dropping of music files, since I can do that in a batch process using Adobe Audition.

So can anyone think of any decent portable players that would suit me?


Thanks for any help!

sounds like you want an iriver h120/h320 + rockbox

{edit} you aren't going to find many players that support WMAL, btw.


later

I just looked those players up and they are ridiculously expensive and 4 years old so I assume that was a joke lol.

The WMA Lossless playback would be nice but is not essential btw.

How about a Cowon D2 ?

Sigh. If you can't be bothered to put forward legitimate suggestions can you at least link me to a forum where I might get some advice?

So you just don't like Cowon, or what? Sure, the base size with flash memory is 4, 8 or 16GB, but did you miss the SDHC expansion slot? Slap a $30 - $40 16GB in any of those and you are beyond your 19GB size requirement. Definitely external HDD and drag and drop. Most owners say the quality is superior to iPods, though not with the stock phones. And a solid and well-documented 50 hour battery life blows your Zen away.

So, maybe that WILL work, or you didn't fully specify your requirements.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/
http://iaudiophile.net/forums/index.php

In these forums you can find a lot of info. The last one is devoted to cowon products.

I hope it helps

From the Terms of Service:

Sorry, when I did a search for it I could only find the 2GB version and I didn't see a mention of an expansion slot. I also saw it was 2 years old so I assumed it was a joke...

The drag and drop...does that include music files? It's just that iPods technically allow drag and drop but not for the playable media files (the drive is split into two essentially). Not sure about the touch screen and it looks a bit thick for a flash-based layer but I'll definitely look into it, thanks.



I'm sorry for saying that one of the reasons I got my mp3 player 4 years ago was that I saw reviews on the internet saying that it sounded better than the latest iPod and then I agreed with that once I got it. :/

DragonQ

You just don't get it do you? watch out for the door on your way out.

terry

I'm sorry? Would you like me to go and find a 4 year old iPod and do some objective tests just because I made the fateful decision 4 years ago to think that one player sounded better than another...?

Sounds like the placebo effect to me, though it has been widely reported that the iPod has difficulty driving high impedance headphones. Now I really don't wish to make a big deal out of TOS #8, except to say that it is essential that you follow it. Otherwise, find somewhere else to play.

Don't be sorry, just realize that people here expect better posting in the future.

I wasn't apologising, it's a way of saying "what?" or "huh?".

If I was comparing the sound quality of two different players or trying to convince you all that my player sounds better than a first generation iPod then that rule makes perfect sense. However, me saying that 4 years ago I thought one sounded better than the other...that's a sin? I don't even remember what the iPods sounded like now so I can't even test if I was right or not so who cares? I can't go back in time and change my decision and I'm not trying to influence anyone else's decisions either.

I was looking for advice on a new portable audio player, not abuse because in one line of my post I reference an opinion I had years before I made the post.

Unsubstantiated opinions regarding sound quality are not welcome here.

Don't make them, period, end of discussion.

My PC's card reader is too old to support SDHC cards so I can't really use one in a Cowon, which means I'm limited to 16GB for £160. Hmm, not sure. I'll wait to see if I get any more suggestions.

Moderation: Removed comment about the TOS. Refer to TOS #7 if you have any more questions.

Well everyone likes to be a bit more scientific around here.

Anyways, you may want to have a look at the players made by SanDisk as well - the Sansa View will probably be the most interesting to you. Also, make sure you take a look at the specs for it as well: it seems to fit in with your current setup, and also comes in a 32gb version which would probably be best in case your music collection increases.


Hope this helps

Edit: on the point of converting from WMA lossless, iirc, windows media player will be able to do this for you (though you may need to have a look in the settings). Of course, you will want to make sure that you choose a high enough bitrate so the quality of the files is acceptable to you. In my own experience, a bitrate of around 192kbps or more is fine with either mp3 or wma encoded by wmp; however, this is my experience only, and may not be universal. Hopefully, though, it gives you a reasonable starting point.

Are you seriously dismissing the Cowon over a sub £4 USB SDHC reader? The kind you can get for free with some SDHC cards? Are you ignoring the fact your new Cowon D2 is itself a SDHC card reader?

Cross that one off of your list.




The sad thing is the "engineering" types around would actually make you do that. If you want to avoid a flame war with anyone don't mention quality just talk about the player you are looking into getting with regards to it's features rather then what you hear about it's "quality".




If you want to avoid any situations around here in the future it would be wise not to make comments like that. If you should know though most of the RMAA tests that have been conducted on IPod (I am not sure what generation players they were, but the general consensus is the output is "very good". What the objective results mean in terms of quality is useless unless you consider yourself the engineering type.



You might want to try:

http://www.dapreview.net/

it's another good source on different DAP that was not mentioned above. We can only give you suggestions around here, but if you are looking for a more precise answer for yourself or your tastes it would be wise to consult the appropriate resources.

Well, maybe Cowon O2 is also an option for you?
It's available with 32GB internal flash and has a SDHC slot. It also supports lots of audio codecs and can drive high impedance headphones without a problem.

He might have been chased off so I don't know if the OP will respond but here it goes: maybe you should be a little more specific with what you want. Do you want a hard drive based player or a flash memory/solid state player? Do you want to be able to expand the storage? If so, what type of memory would you like it to use?

Just know that most of the mainstream players out there require that you use syncing software of some sort whether they be iPods, Zunes, or Zens. I have a newer 8GB Creative Zen that requires me to use syncing software (either the software that came with the player or compatible 3rd party applications).

Additionally, the price of a 120GB iPod classic is pretty much the norm for hard drive players of that size or flash/solid state players that are 16-32GB. I believe that the Zune line of players are the only ones that support WMAL but I could be wrong. I was on the DAP market a year ago and things have changed since then. I suggest looking at Cowon's website as well as Creatives. I enjoy mu 8GB Zen even more so than my 16GB iPod touch. I am really thinking about purchasing a 32GB Zen X-Fi (don't put too much attention into the X-Fi name) along with a 16GB SD card. I can purchase those two things (making a combined storage of 48GB) for $309 US ($280 for the player and an additional $29 for the memory card).

I don't think that is bad at all for a player about the size of 4-5 credit cards stacked on top of each other.

Hmm the 16GB version is £70 more expensive than the 16GB D2 but I can't see much difference spec-wise except for much less music battery life and a wide screen. Am I missing something?


I don't mind if it's Hard Drive or Flash based because both seem to produce players of around the same size. Expandable storage would be nice, especially if it's a flash-based player. SD Cards would make the most sense for that.


Hmm that sucks. The reason I don't like the idea of that is that I don't have the same stuff in my main playlist as on my DAP and I also like to just copy files over quickly from any PC. The fact that even iPods can be synced using third party software means it's not too bad because you can put that software on the actual device and thus use it on most PCs, plus you're not tied to one media application.


I had a look at the Zen X-Fi but it doesn't support any lossless formats and a few reviews I've read said that the button interface is pretty rubbish. I like my Zen Touch because you can scroll quickly or slowly through a list (like an iPod click wheel). Having to go back to buttons would be annoying I think.

I went through this researching/selection process Monday night (my 5Gb Rio Carbon no longer can transfer files). Nixing Zens for me is that they don't integrate what's on an SD card into the library.
I bought an 8Gb Sansa Fuze and am very pleased. Latest firmware supports FLAC and Ogg Vorbis. Rockbox seems likely to be ported soon. With micro-SD expansion, it's about US $115 for 16 Gb and $150 for 24Gb total capacity. Battery play time is unexceptional. My main use is language study.
I already have the Cowon D2 and I love it (in part because I'm a fan of BBE). Rockbox is being ported, but Cowon's own firmware is so good that I shrug (though that'll add HE-AAC -- powerful processor!). Battery-play time is extraordinary, but the touch screen is a PITA and you have to load tweaks to make display info legibly large. 32Gb SD-card expansion is a possibility.
I think this sort of thing is better discussed in forums like those at AnythingButIpod.com, iAudiophile.net and forums.sandisk.com/sansa/ ...

Yeah the most common negative points for the D2 I've heard are the 4000 file limit (8000 with an SD Card) and either the screen being too small, the font being too small or the operating system being bad (navigation etc.). Hmm.

Cowon D2 display can be fixed and better fonts loaded; by switching to Korean fimware, you can get amazing displays using Flash. iAudiophile has extensive discussions about how to do that. But, that's fritter work and may invoke fear. I find screen size adequate.
I very much like that it can be set to play randomly all files in a directory. I create folders such as Fusion, Chill, ProgRock, whatever, that I like to hear as a kind of radio station.
If you're not listening to short pop recordings, 8,000 files at better quality kbps settings should be adequate.