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Topic: Portable player for ogg vorbis? (Read 8732 times) previous topic - next topic
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Portable player for ogg vorbis?

I am looking for a portable audio player that plays formats such as ogg vorbis as well as mp3. I am looking to spend around $100. Live in Canada. Appreciate suggestions.

I have most of my audio encoded in vorbis at around -q6 which is ~192 – ~224 kbits/second . Is this going to be OK    for a portable player?

Thanks

Portable player for ogg vorbis?

Reply #1 –
i recommend a sansa clip+ or the newly released clip zip. the difference between the 2 is that the zip has a tiny colour screen with album art display but it's so small i see it as bit of gimmick. they can store upto 8GB onboard although lower capacity verisions are available. they have a micro SHDC card slot for further expansion and cards are dirt cheap now. both play vorbis just fine and i use q5 (~160kbps) which sounds great to me.

you only have to search these forums or further on the web to see how highly regarded these players are. they really are excellent value for money.

Portable player for ogg vorbis?

Reply #3 –
Thanks for replies. I have also heard about the Sansa Fuse. How would that compare to the clip?

Portable player for ogg vorbis?

Reply #4 –
Quote from: JFS on
Thanks for replies. I have also heard about the Sansa Fuse. How would that compare to the clip?



Same hardware, but in a bigger box with a color screen. 

Fuze+ is something else, not recommended.

Portable player for ogg vorbis?

Reply #5 –
I found a thread that talked about the Sanddisk players having some backgroud noise. Is this much of a problem? I was also thinking of the Sony players, I can get those locally, or iRiver E150 How would they compare to Sandisk?

These are the ones I can find locally.
sony players:
NWZE463B
NWZS764BTB
NWZS764BTP
NWZE464L
NWZE464P
NWZA864B
NWZS764BTL
NWZS764BTW
NWZE464B
NWZE464KB
NWZE355R

Portable player for ogg vorbis?

Reply #6 –
Quote from: marc2003 on
i recommend a sansa clip+ or the newly released clip zip. the difference between the 2 is that the zip has a tiny colour screen with album art display but it's so small i see it as bit of gimmick.


From what I have seen and read, given the small price difference between the 2, I would recommend the clip zip: the bigger colour screen is easier to read and make for better navigation. The clip zip supports AAC (.m4a), which I think the clip+ does not.

Portable player for ogg vorbis?

Reply #7 –
Quote from: marc2003 on
i recommend a sansa clip+ or the newly released clip zip.

+1

I do have a Sanza Fuze (Clip + video support) and I have no cons up to now.
Vorbis + MP3 + AAC + FLAC
FLAC and MP3 have me covered in everything.
Sansa Fuze v2 w/ Rockbox

Portable player for ogg vorbis?

Reply #8 –
Quote from: hernaaan on
I do have a Sanza Fuze (Clip + video support) and I have no cons up to now.
Vorbis + MP3 + AAC + FLAC

I had a clip+ (whick broke after a year) and now have a Fuze. I prefer the Fuze, simply because it has longer battery life (20+ hours).

Unfortunately the Fuze has a proprietary connector (clip+ is mini usb), but this also means there are docks available for it (I use the griffin powerdock).

Both are great players - I've used Vorbis ever since I realised it consumes less power than MP3 on rockbox.

Portable player for ogg vorbis?

Reply #9 –
Quote
I am looking for a portable audio player that plays formats such as ogg vorbis as well as mp3. I am looking to spend around $100. Live in Canada. Appreciate suggestions.

I have most of my audio encoded in vorbis at around -q6 which is ~192 – ~224 kbits/second . Is this going to be OK for a portable player?

Thanks


I have a Cowon 02 Korean player. (They recently stopped making them). If you can get around the "ugly' interface that a lot of folks don't like I highly recommend picking one up! I have had it for a couple years and it supports a lot of open audio codecs including Vorbis out of the box. You could probably get it for less then $100 dollars now that it has bee discontinued.  You might also want to look into the Sansa Fuze as that's probably the only player on the market that actively supports Vorbis "out-of-the-box" right now.
budding I.T professional

Portable player for ogg vorbis?

Reply #10 –
Quote from: JFS on
I found a thread that talked about the Sanddisk players having some backgroud noise. Is this much of a problem?


It depends on what you find tolerable.  After playback starts there is no background noise.  But you may get a noise when starting playback and you will get one when resuming from pause.  It's quite an ugly noise; not just a discreet click, more of a short buzz, and you might hear it in either channel or both.  It's very noticeable on resuming quiet tracks but if death metal is your thing then you might never notice it....As with many other players you'll also hear a bit of clicking when using the volume buttons (depending on the volume and the track level).

In other respects they offer very good audio quality, tiny size, can play back Ogg Vorbis, and have little competition even at double the price.  You can also install Rockbox easily which offers broader codec support and lots of useful features, though the nasty noises remain.

You say "portable" but I wonder if this includes the slightly brick like form factor of players such as 1st generation iPods and iriver H100 and H300 series and similar.  If it does and you can't stand Sansa players' buzzes and clicks and don't mind risking buying a used player then a used iriver running Rockbox might be a better bet.  They have easily replaceable batteries and their hard disks can be replaced with compact flash, or SSD, or even SDHC with an adapter, so you can expect a lot of years of use.  You get very high quality audio playback with no nasty noises.  They are also much more able to drive less sensitive headphones; the Sansa players are rather quiet in comparison and can't do a good job with higher impedance and lower sensitivity phones.  If you use ear buds or in ear monitors this shouldn't be an issue.

The Fuze had issues with the wheel control button(s) wearing quickly and/or being very susceptible to damage.  The buttons on mine had become very frustrating to use, requiring very hard and sustained presses.  I then got a Clip+ which seems much more robust but I do notice I have to charge it more often.  I know in terms of audio playback they measure the same and probably sound identical but I never noticed as much unwanted noise with the Fuze as with the Clip+.  Whether this is due to minor hardware differences or manufacturing tolerances or my perception I can't tell as I had one player after the other so couldn't do a direct comparison.

One thing the Sansa Fuze and Clip+ players have which many others don't is the microSD card slot.  microSD memory cards have become very cheap lately; I got a genuine class 10 32GB a few weeks ago for £25, so by adding it to my 8GB Clip+ I now have a 40GB player for a total cost of just over £60.

Portable player for ogg vorbis?

Reply #11 –
Quote from: Takla on
Quote from: JFS on
I found a thread that talked about the Sanddisk players having some backgroud noise. Is this much of a problem?


It depends on what you find tolerable.  After playback starts there is no background noise.  But you may get a noise when starting playback and you will get one when resuming from pause.  It's quite an ugly noise; not just a discreet click, more of a short buzz, and you might hear it in either channel or both.  It's very noticeable on resuming quiet tracks but if death metal is your thing then you might never notice it....As with many other players you'll also hear a bit of clicking when using the volume buttons (depending on the volume and the track level).


For what its worth, its only a fraction of Clip+ players that have this problem.  Sandisk did many production runs of the player, and revised the wiring a few times.  One of them apparently has a some background noise when the hard disk is accessed if you use sensitive headphones.  On mine there is no such noise, but someone sent me recordings of their player and it is quite pronounced whenever the player accesses memory, at least when recorded though an amplified line in. 

No idea what the Zip is like, I don't have one.
 

Portable player for ogg vorbis?

Reply #12 –
Quote from: saratoga on
For what its worth, its only a fraction of Clip+ players that have this problem......though an amplified line in.


I didn't realize some (most?) Clip+ players were unaffected.  I have a variety of 'phones, from ancient iriver H140 buds to budget and midrange IEMs, and a couple of pairs of reasonable quality full size headphones (one open, one closed back), and there is no getting away from the hardware noises on my Clip+ however I listen.  With the Fuze the noise was there but I recall it being so quiet that I usually didn't even notice it.  With the irivers these kinds of hardware derived noises just don't occur.

If when buying a new Clip+ it is likely not to have this problem then it doesn't seem to have much competition, and I guess it's quite a cheap gamble with good odds.