HydrogenAudio

Hydrogenaudio Forum => Polls => Topic started by: JohnV on 2002-03-15 06:20:14

Poll
Question:
Option 1: Yes: Memory based (Rio 800,NW-S4,Nex II,etc.) votes: 120
Option 2: Yes: CD based (Iriver,eXpanium, Rio Volt, etc.) votes: 210
Option 3: Yes: Hard disk based (iPod, etc.) votes: 243
Option 4: Yes: PocketPC etc. (capable for playing) votes: 25
Option 5: Yes: Mobile phone based votes: 14
Option 6: Yes: 2 (or more) different types. votes: 65
Option 7: No: Waiting for one with Ogg Vorbis support votes: 116
Option 8: Not yet, But I'm about to get one. votes: 64
Option 9: No votes: 174
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: JohnV on 2002-03-15 06:20:14
Do you have portable 'mp3' audio player?
'mp3' in quotes because some players support or will support different formats.

Personally, I don't have one yet, and I'm waiting for Vorbis support. That's my minimum demand...
Musepack support for quality music would be nice also, but I'm not sure how realistic it is to hope portable support for MPC.. Of course AAC also would be fine. WMA - who cares.

If there's not gonna be nice portable players, I'll go for PocketPC.


Edit. I'm not anymore waiting for Vorbis support, although it is always a plus. Now I'm more interestd in AAC-support. 
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: JohnMK on 2002-03-15 07:56:30
I'm very happy with my Rio 800, though it appears it will only ever support the mp3 codec. I'm a bit disappointed in this, but it was rather cheap; how could I expect it to have indefinite economic utility? That'd be asking a bit much. As a consumer in the capitalist economic system I'm supposed to believe that buying something new every two years is a good thing, right?
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: gdougherty on 2002-03-15 08:41:03
I'm waiting for one with a documented software upgradeable decoding section so anything can be supported.  The versatility to play mpc, ogg, mp3 or any other format no matter how obscure it might be is what I need before I get one.  Either tha or just mpc support
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: jth on 2002-03-15 12:44:10
I have a Rio 500 and Rio Volt. I'm happy with mp3-only support, I've neither the desire nor the time to rip 50 GB of music again.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: MODatic on 2002-03-15 13:25:30
I own a Rio 500 and an iRiver Imp-250, both of which are serving me well. Looking forward to Vorbis support for my iRiver though

I don't see the point with supporting WMA. Why is having WMA support something to brag about? all it shows is how stupid the hardware manufacturer is and how they wasted so much time on supporting it.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Benjamin Lebsanft on 2002-03-15 13:30:04
still waiting for vorbis support...
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Meista on 2002-03-15 14:58:15
i built an old K6-166 with 1 Gig HD into my car.
It plays mpc, mp3 , ogg.. does it count as a "portable" too ? 

Meista
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: fewtch on 2002-03-15 15:41:43
Quote
Originally posted by gdougherty
I'm waiting for one with a documented software upgradeable decoding section so anything can be supported. 

A *documented* software upgradeable firmware?  You'll probably be waiting forever...
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: gdougherty on 2002-03-15 17:36:29
Quote
Originally posted by fewtch

A *documented* software upgradeable firmware?  You'll probably be waiting forever...


Well, something a tad more universal at least.  I'd be perfectly happy with something that could use winamp input plugins.  Of course, this would mean that users wouldn't need to upgrade to newer hardware just to get new media support, so companies might not like this as much.  A CD based player with this kind of support would get $300 or so from me though, so the player price could be bumped a little to compensate, IMO.  Maybe ina few years we could get DVD+R support.  4.7GB on one disk, hell yeah!
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: C-Nok on 2002-03-15 17:46:55
I own a Dioneer. It's a firmware upgradable cd player. The manual claims that it optionally supports aac , but its web doesn't say a word about it
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: fewtch on 2002-03-15 19:33:51
Quote
Originally posted by gdougherty
Well, something a tad more universal at least.  I'd be perfectly happy with something that could use winamp input plugins.

That's a cool idea... wonder why nobody's implemented anything like that yet...
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Benjamin Lebsanft on 2002-03-15 19:41:38
yeah, my friends and I had the same idea. Would be very cool!
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: gdougherty on 2002-03-16 10:01:38
Quote
Originally posted by fewtch

That's a cool idea... wonder why nobody's implemented anything like that yet...


Probably because of a few reasons.
1)  I imagine they can get away with a lower cost DSP in the units if they optimize the firmware code for their dsp and use proprietary stuff.  You'd need a decent processor to make sure you could handle whatever codecs people throw at the device.  Nothing too powerful really, but it probably couldn't be a basic DSP and at this point you're probably looking at something more akin to a pocket PC, but with more storage space.
2)  The forced upgrade I mentioned before.  flash cards and the like have been around since before the original RIO.  Why do we still see devices with a limited amount of fixed storage instead of completely modular systems?  Cost and forced obsolescence.  64MB not good enough to handle your 192Kbps files?  Sorry, have to shell out for a brand new player.
3)  I think this obsolescence is probably also the reson behind the lack of new codec support in the firmware updateable players.  They'd rather put money into making new things than making older things more useful.  It's all about those new sales.

Perhaps I'm being too cynical here, but really it must come down to economics.  If they could make a 50GB unit that plays every single codec, both lossless and lossy and sell it for $200, you can bet it'd be on the market.  Not very many people are willing to dump a bunch of money on these units, so cost limits what goes into them in order to help guarantee decent sales.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: svzurich on 2002-03-16 22:02:07
I own the original Rio 300, original Expanium, SlimX, and my Compaq Ipaq.  I love my SlimX and use it with my Ety ER-4Ps.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Lizard on 2002-03-16 22:22:59
Quote
Originally posted by JohnV
Do you have portable 'mp3' audio player?
'mp3' in quotes because some players support or will support different formats.

Personally, I don't have one yet, and I'm waiting for Vorbis support. That's my minimum demand...
Musepack support for quality music would be nice also, but I'm not sure how realistic it is to hope portable support for MPC.. Of course AAC also would be fine. WMA - who cares.

If there's not gonna be nice portable players, I'll go for PocketPC.



An iPod.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: kennedyb4 on 2002-03-16 23:06:38
First I bought a Rio Volt. No Power and lousy EQ curves. Next I bought a Intel Pocket Concert. This had more power bur ate batteries for breakfast and also had a very audible buzzing sound on softer passages of music.

It also had a 15.5Khz rolloff but I couldn't really hear this with the Sony earbuds I was using at the time.

I wound up buying a Sony D-FS18 cd player. It plays cd-rw discs and allows me to use Shibata-sans eq and a light crossfeed filter for a HRTF. Power to burn and greater than 20 hours with NiMH batteries at full power.

I can only carry about 20 tunes when I run, but the sound is very good.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: fewtch on 2002-03-17 02:29:30
Yikes, Sony is evil .

I got one of those AVC Soul players (almost the same as the Rio Volt) and am fairly happy with it.  For the price, it's not bad at all.  Yeah, the EQ rather sucks and it doesn't get very loud, but its very light on batteries.

Compare it to one of the first generation players like the Genica, it's unimaginably better... but the players are improving all the time.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Negative Zero on 2002-03-17 04:33:44
I own an iRiver SlimX, and am quite impressed by its performance. In addition to the many features it already has, it may turn out to be the first portable player to support Ogg Vorbis (through an upcoming firmware update).

Right now, as I write this, Paul Van Dyk's "Politics Of Dancing" (Disc 2) is absolutely killin' it in my SlimX.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Northpack on 2002-03-17 22:06:46
I got a Rio Volt CD/MP3 Player and I am perfectly happy with it. Sure, there are some small downsides like the display or the somewhat limited volume... but all in one it does it's job well and iRiver even announced to provide Ogg Vorbis support with a future firmware!

I don't care about recent memory-based players - don't use it for jogging and the memory is much too small and overpriced.  I prefer the CD based solution over memory and hard disk, because of it's flexibility and cheapness and I realy don't need gimmicks like an integrated receiver, 20 hours anti-shock memory, a cigarette lighter, the ability to watch a DVD on the lcd-display, a GPS locator , etcetera...
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: freakngoat on 2002-03-18 03:35:59
Yeah, I got the Rio Volt too.  I'm very happy with it.  They seem to have been continuously updating the firmware, and with each new version great new features are added.

I listen to it through Grado SR-80s and a homemade headphone amplifier (CMoy pocket amp on Headwize.com)...

I couldn't ask for a better sounding, more convenient portable system...
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: sdiamond on 2002-03-18 15:30:16
I own an Archos Jukebox Recorder. It came with a 6.5 g drive, which I have upgraded to 30 g. All of my own encodes are mp3s (alt preset extreme) and they sound fabulous. Besides the capacity, the best thing about this player us that it has digital (S/PDIF) output so you can bypass the cheap analog path (which actually sounds as good as any mps player I've heard) when connecting to your home stereo. The unit handles mp3s only - this is becuase the Micronos (sp?) DSP chip only does mp3. My impression is that chip makers are only going to build-in encoder/decoders that are marketable (mp3/WMA/???). The AJBR (as their generally called) is firmware upgradable for track-handling and sound adjustment, but not for encoding.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: jace112 on 2002-05-15 21:12:13
@sdiamond
How did you manage to upgrade to 30 Go? I'll soon receive a "standard" 20 Go...
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: chrisgeleven on 2002-05-15 21:27:12
I just got a RioVolt SP90 for my birthday a few days ago. So far, this thing has been great. So great I am switching from using Musepack to MP3's again (encoded using --alt-preset standard of course).

Only drawbacks of this unit is the low maximum volume, no official firmware updates (even though unofficially there is a hack that will allow you to use SP100 and iRiver updates, works great, I use those), and a stupid remaining time issue with VBR files (showing that a 5 minute mp3 is 8 minutes long for example).

I'll keep using this until it goes obsolete (meaning Sonicblue or iRiver release a new product supporting OGG or Musepack, instead of a firmware update that provides playback support for those formats).

I can only imagine what it would be like to someday have portable DVD players that play Musepack or (gasp) lossless files.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: sdiamond on 2002-05-16 19:04:08
jace112,

Here's a link about doing upgrades on the Archos Jukebox. the article is about a Jukebox 6000, but it worked well for my Jukebox recorder. I've done two of these (20 gig from 6.5, and 30 gig from 20 gig) and haven't had any problems.

http://www.funmp3players.com/reviews/modify/ (http://www.funmp3players.com/reviews/modify/)

If you haven't already, check out the forum at this site too. There are excellent comments and suggestions.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: jace112 on 2002-05-16 20:43:10
@sdiamond
I check it out !!!
Really cool...
Thx
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Artemis3 on 2002-08-31 16:51:20
I am waiting for Ogg Vorbis support as well. Seems that the floating point issue makes things complicated for current dsps. MPC should be supported, i wonder if hardware manufacturers can contact a .com site to deal with mpc license issues? Or quite simply musepack marketing sucks  I would also like small stand alone players, for example many VCD players can also play mp3. VCD players are at least half the size of typical dvd players, and they are also (at least) half the prize
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Artemis3 on 2002-08-31 16:51:55
I am waiting for Ogg Vorbis support as well. Seems that the floating point issue makes things complicated for current dsps. MPC should be supported, i wonder if hardware manufacturers can contact a .com site to deal with mpc license issues? Or quite simply musepack marketing sucks  I would also like small stand alone players, for example many VCD players can also play mp3. VCD players are at least half the size of typical dvd players, and they are also (at least) half the prize
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: manni on 2003-01-09 08:29:09
When I see a iPod with Ogg Vorbis support for under 100 e (this forum doesn't support Euro symbol?), I'm going to buy it.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Xenion on 2003-01-09 09:02:07
I've got a Sony E-10 Network Walkman 128MB. Mp3 and Atrac Support
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Kblood on 2003-01-09 09:02:11
I currently own the iRiver ChromeX IMP-150.

I love it.

My girlfriend got a couple of months before that an also really nice (but a bit less nice  ) RioVolt SP-90 from me as a birthday present (by the moment she got it, it was already upgraded to IMP-100's 2.10 iRiver's firmware...  ).

Both players are nice, but the IMP-150 owns it by far with the nice display and nice remote it brought along...

I'm having some wet dreams about the famous Ogg Vorbis support possibly coming... but I am happy now as it is, and it won't make me lose any sleep if I don't get it...

I bought the IMP-150 for 100 euros in Spain, btw. Worth every cent.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: NumLOCK on 2003-01-09 09:22:44
My first and current audio player is a Panasonic SV-SD80, with SDMI built inside 

With 96kbps AAC, being able to fit 9 cd's on the 512mb SD card is nice, but the bundled Realone-bloatware is a pain really.

The real good thing, is that the unit makes a very good necklace B)

I doubt it's easy to do, but does anyone know if ISO AAC files can somehow be converted and imported for that player ?
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: c.b.2000 on 2003-01-09 10:10:49
I'm a memory base audio player designer. I have many audio player sample that i can use. But I mostly like that one manufacted by ourselves with my mp3,mpc and aac supported firm ware. Vorbis support is hard to implement because it's too flexible and needs too many RAM.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: NumLOCK on 2003-01-09 11:05:50
Quote
I'm a memory base audio player designer. I have many audio player sample that i can use. But I mostly like that one manufacted by ourselves with my mp3,mpc and aac supported firm ware. Vorbis support is hard to implement because it's too flexible and needs too many RAM.

Please, tell me, where can I buy the portable mpc player you're mentioning ?       
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: indybrett on 2003-01-09 14:49:23
I have a NexIIe, an Iriver SlimX 350, and for the car a JVC KD-SH99.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: fragtal on 2003-01-09 15:26:45
as soon as the wonderful ipod supports ogg vorbis, i'll buy one cause i like it a lot!
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: ger@co on 2003-01-09 16:55:09
Samsung's Yepp 700H which I have loaded with mp3PRO files.  It works fine, and I'll use it until all the other wishes in this thread have been fulfilled and a "universal" player comes along.

Later.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: de Mon on 2003-01-09 17:51:35
I'am happy with my SlimX, but will be more happy if iRiver eliminates presence of evil wma and asf in my player and replace it with MPC or at least OGG. Or will provide different firmwares.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: franschzgeb on 2003-01-09 19:37:57
ARCHOS JUKEBOX STUDIO 20 GHZ !!!

the best
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: smok3 on 2003-01-09 19:39:14
mine would have to be:
- huge hd (20 gigs minimum), something that can be easily used as a portable hd
- vorbis, mpc, ape player
- complete rg support
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: franschzgeb on 2003-01-09 19:39:23
!!!! sorry 20 Go!!!
   
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: fileman on 2003-01-09 19:50:12
My HP Jornada 525, PocketPC, Hitachi SH-3 with 128 MB CF-Card works ok for me at the moment (of course I use it mainly as calendar, address book, calculator, and so on). Annoying is the high power consumption, and the small, built in (not changeable) rechargeable battery. It's only possible to play about 2.5 to 3 hours of music with the screen switched off. Then the thing has to recharge for two hours. The second thing I hate about it is, that it's too slow for OGG. Although there's a player around, I can't play OGGs :-( Perhaps there will be more optimised ogg-code in the future?

Regards, fileman.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Linkin on 2003-01-09 20:01:56
i have a sony net md and i'm happy with it (mz-n505)
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: JEN on 2003-01-09 20:14:00
I have IPAQ PocketPC and can play wav, mp3, ogg, wma.

Can mpc's aac's mp4's be played on it ???? (!)  If yes, how?
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: JEN on 2003-01-09 20:22:48
Quote
The second thing I hate about it is, that it's too slow for OGG.

I can play OGG files perfectly on my IPAQ PocketPC!
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: JEN on 2003-01-09 20:22:56
Quote
The second thing I hate about it is, that it's too slow for OGG.

I can play OGG files perfectly on my IPAQ PocketPC!
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: deej_1977 on 2003-01-09 21:21:34
Am I the only one with a Nomad Jukebox 3 20 GB? Very happy with it by the way, especially with the sound quality. Made all my old MP3's sound like sh*t but that 's probably Blade's fault ;-).
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: LordSyl on 2003-01-11 16:35:42
Quote
I can only imagine what it would be like to someday have portable DVD players that play Musepack or (gasp) lossless files.

Musepack OK, but lossless is pointless (unless it's DVD player).

If you're on CDs, with lossless you can store the same songs than a CD audio, or a few more.
CDAudio uses full 2352bytes/sector for audio (CD capacity aprox 800Mbytes) while lossless is data and it uses 2048bytes/sector + ECC codes, so space that can be used is 700Mbytes. Unless you want more disc reliability on cheap discs, there is no point on doing so....

IMO lossless is made for HD archiving.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: arman68 on 2003-01-11 21:42:18
I was just about to buy one (smartcard or compactflash based), when I decided to upgrade my mobile... I know have a Siemens SL42e (unlocked and upgraded to SL45i after firmware upgrades) and it can play MP3 very well.

Plus it use a MMC for storage, up to 128MB  I am sure it would be possible for Siemens to add support for Ogg with a new firmware update. Time to email them.

I highly recommend it to anyone
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Jojo on 2003-01-11 21:57:15
Quote
When I see a iPod with Ogg Vorbis support for under 100 e (this forum doesn't support Euro symbol?), I'm going to buy it.

I think you are out of luck then  You'll never get it this cheap
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: killakid on 2003-01-13 13:33:53
I own a Dioneer DCP100 and am quite happy with it - I believe it is a good value choice.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: fileman on 2003-01-15 22:41:09
Quote
Quote
The second thing I hate about it is, that it's too slow for OGG.

I can play OGG files perfectly on my IPAQ PocketPC!

Yes, the IPAQs are faster, using other CPUs than my Jornada... the SH-3 is quite slow.

Regards, fileman.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: fileman on 2003-01-15 22:41:14
Quote
Quote
The second thing I hate about it is, that it's too slow for OGG.

I can play OGG files perfectly on my IPAQ PocketPC!

Yes, the IPAQs are faster, using other CPUs than my Jornada... the SH-3 is quite slow.

Regards, fileman.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: fileman on 2003-01-15 22:46:25
Quote
I was just about to buy one (smartcard or compactflash based), when I decided to upgrade my mobile... I know have a Siemens SL42e (unlocked and upgraded to SL45i after firmware upgrades) and it can play MP3 very well.

Plus it use a MMC for storage, up to 128MB   I am sure it would be possible for Siemens to add support for Ogg with a new firmware update. Time to email them.

I highly recommend it to anyone

I think this won't be possible... the Siemens mobile has a special chip that decodes MP3, and this chip is most likely not able to play OGGs...

Regards, fileman.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Mgz on 2003-01-21 22:32:39
/me have an iRiver ChromeX ,but it died yesterday  :'(  :'(



I gonna call iRiver and return it :'(


CD Base or no,or I gonna get one ???
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: LordofStars on 2003-01-21 22:47:11
I need another option!

I have a panasonic 4 in one device. Plays mp3, aac, wma and takes .3mp pictures, 14fps mp4 video and  records sound in stereo via the .g273 codec. Pretty cool device and I got it far below the suggested retail of 499$

I got it to archive some of my experiences (basic training, people i've met, trips etc.) I mean I can do sound for concerts, pictures for people and video when either won't cut it. Heh i bought it for the purpose of reminicing not full archive quality. The quality on all of its functions is enough that it isn't annoying when viewing any of the resulting files.

Plus it does well with vbr files and the few aac files I've tested... Plus the ability to update the firmware makes it a pretty good device. I wouldn't suggest buying it unless you would use all of the options and don't already own a device that would replace one of its functions.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Phobos on 2003-01-21 23:09:09
i just got a Philips expanium EXP503 because since montys comments on high bitrate vorbis it really scared me out of the format; i dont want flexibility, i want top notch quality, like the one AAC has so thats why i got this player with the huge  space CDRs gimme. Needless to say i love it, becasue it plays High- Extreme nero AAC encodes okay, but it has problems in gapless songs (makes the thing crash and i have to turn it on and off for it to work), nothing an audio editor and fadeout/fadein cant solve.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Phobos on 2003-01-21 23:10:02
i just got a Philips expanium EXP503 because since montys comments on high bitrate vorbis it really scared me out of the format; i dont want flexibility, i want top notch quality, like the one AAC has so thats why i got this player with the huge  space CDRs gimme. Needless to say i love it, becasue it plays High- Extreme nero AAC encodes okay, but it has problems in gapless songs (makes the thing crash and i have to turn it on and off for it to work), nothing an audio editor and fadeout/fadein cant solve.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: AtaqueEG on 2003-01-22 00:48:56
I don´t know if I can do this, but anyway, for those of you who do not yet have an iRiver (others are worthless, IMHO) Amazon.com has them on sale thru feb 2. The SlimX is $110 USD, the 150 is $65!
Go get one and ask questions later!
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: ronnie_t on 2003-01-22 01:15:08
I own a Rioport Rio 600 Limited Edition with 64 MB Ram
The soundquality is good, not extremely good
With silent music, you can hear an annoying background noise
64 MB is too little, upgrading is too expensive
The battery (1 penlite) lives 10-14 hours
The software and drivers that comes with it ...sux

Overall a good player, it was worth the money and was a good choice, 6 months ago
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: ronnie_t on 2003-01-22 01:20:30
I own a Rioport Rio 600 Limited Edition with 64 MB Ram
The soundquality is good, not extremely good
With silent music, you can hear an annoying background noise
64 MB is too little, upgrading is too expensive
The battery (1 penlite) lives 10-14 hours
The software and drivers that comes with it ...sux

Overall a good player, it was worth the money and was a good choice, 6 months ago
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: LordofStars on 2003-01-22 01:28:24
Damn... This topic isn't updating for me. I also am considering getting a nomad jukebox because I like the dsp options it presents. Experiences?
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: ErikS on 2003-01-22 08:29:06
Quote
I don´t know if I can do this, but anyway, for those of you who do not yet have an iRiver (others are worthless, IMHO) Amazon.com has them on sale thru feb 2. The SlimX is $110 USD, the 150 is $65!
Go get one and ask questions later!

That's a good price. Unfortunately it's more than twice that here in Europe... 
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: LordofStars on 2003-01-23 20:29:51
Because of the advice (mostly prices) presented in this thread I purchased a chromex yesterday from amazon.com, but the site is not liking my credit card... I may have to use a friends.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Trawlerman on 2003-03-29 15:07:33
I have a few players that will handle my MP3s. 

Like some others on this board I have the HP Jornada 525 with the SH3 Processor.    It's pretty dire overall and for the past year it has lain idle - I can't even be arsed to use it as an Organiser let alone anything else.

I also have an el cheapo MP3 player that I got for next to nothing from a friend but its pretty dire all ways round.    It takes CF Cards and I have a 128 meg for it but haven't used in long enough.

My main way of playing MP3s whilst out and about is with either my MZN-707 or MZ-N10 Net Minidisc players from Sony.    My old man uses the 707 whilst I use the N10.    They don't natively support MP3 like somebody mention in earlier post to this thread but the software provided converts the file to Atrac then transferrs those.    A touch messy perhaps but good sound overall.    And upto 5 hours on a disc. 
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: c15zyx on 2003-03-29 15:48:02
Used to have Rio 500, now have the Muvo 64MB for jogging and the gym. All my music files are ripped using vorbis but since the player capacity isn't high it's not a problem converting the tracks i want from vorbis to mp3 (yes, I should be reencoding from the original cds, but for the sake of convenience and since I need them only around 160kbps anyway there's basically no difference).

As for ogg support, there aren't too many choices there... looking into the neuros after the initial wave of reviews on its release... what I'd want is a vorbis-enabled iPod or a 128MB flash player (-q 5 on a portable anyone?).

As an aside it's sad to see sonicblue go... what they did w/ the rio 300 and 500 really jump-started the mp3 player craze.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: aragorn44 on 2003-03-29 16:59:59
I received my I-River IFP 180T 2 days ago. With the Sennheiser earplugs and max. volume I launch Paradise Lost into my brain while I'm working!! Great.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: grrr223 on 2003-06-03 21:08:06
I hope to get a new iPod for graduation, finally, i have a reason to graduate !
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: AJUK on 2003-06-08 14:24:43
NO don't want one NetMD is much better 
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Jore on 2003-06-28 15:55:11
I wanted a mp3-phone that records phone calls and can be used as a dictaphone. Surprisingly, the only choice available was old Siemens SL45 + 128 MB MMC. I wanted a AAC+ phone, but the new Nokia 3300 didn't have decent recording features (they were Nokialized ie. crippled for some weird marketing reason) and the upcoming G3-phones are too bulky for my taste.

Now I am quite happy with the quality of lame 128 abr + album mp3gain to 89db from cd originals. Some of the stuff I downloaded from the web with 192 kbps sound much worse.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: crwl on 2003-06-28 16:14:09
I have a Pontis SP600 (and iRiver ChromeX which I'm selling to my girlfriend). Pontis SP600 is cheap (less than 100 euro plus another 100 euro for a 512 MB CF card) and small and light enough. I usually use lame --alt-preset 128-160 for encoding.

The people at Pontis expect Vorbis support to be available in Q4 2003, but I don't know if that's worth believing. At least it should be possible -- if I'm not completely mistaken, the Neuros, which is getting Vorbis support RSN, also has a similar 16-bit DSP made by TI inside. The Neuros, according to their forums, contains a TI TMS320DA150 and Pontis SP600 has a TMS320C5416 inside, but I don't know if anybody knows the exact specifications.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: LIF on 2003-06-28 17:23:12
I have a CD-based player from Samsung(MCD-SM60). It plays CDA, mp3 & mp2 as well.
The only problem is: it doesnt like high bitrates(256 and up), but considering the price I paid(US29) its a bargain.
LIF

//edit//-Just started using rechargeable batteries instead of alkalines and, by miracle, now it plays high bitrates perfectly.
(Ni-Cad batteries can deliver more current(mA) than regular alkaline batteries...)
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: jormartr on 2003-06-28 19:01:42
But what the hell!! NObody has an 8cm unit?
I wanted an 8 cm unit, philips maybe, but I'm considering wait some time to see what new products come to market, some small unit with anymore than mp3 support (of course, wma is not considered). Maybe it will be here, but we'll have to wait a long, to see dvd hardware based player with ogg, aac or mpc, that would be my dream, and if it could be with 8cm disks    . So, I'll wait a year or so, and will survive with my broken-near-to-die sony discman. I am sure something close to that will be made...
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: johnsonlam on 2003-06-28 21:31:37
I have a NexII.

The only reason is it support Compact Flash type 1 and 2. CF have large size and reasonable price, also my digital camera use CF.

Personally, the only point I'm not satisfy with NexII is - it's a Hong Kong's product, but didn't support chinese (no double byte language support).

And it's manufacturer promise the latest version NexIA MAY have vorbis support, but nothing for now. I'm sick of the WMA sound  so I won't encode to WMA.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Undesirable on 2003-06-28 23:52:46
I have an Archos Jukebox Studio 20. It does the job, but doesn't seem to be able to completely keep up with bitrates over 192kb/s. You will get the odd pause now and then. Also, after much use, the paintwork on the thing has started to peel off, and there are issues with heat and recharging.

If I were going to buy a new player now, I would go for the Creative Jukebox Zen http://www.nomadworld.com/products/jukebox_zen/ (http://www.nomadworld.com/products/jukebox_zen/) and a copy of Redchair software's  Notmad. http://www.redchairsoftware.com/notmad/ (http://www.redchairsoftware.com/notmad/)
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: dinamo_man on 2003-06-29 01:58:12
I own an iPod 20 G. and i'm very happy with my mp3 player. This is the best player i ever had.        B)
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Undesirable on 2003-06-29 02:03:55
I'm not so convinced with the ipod. I prefer the nice metallic look and features of the zen myself.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: thijs@rdb on 2003-06-29 02:05:56
i love my i-bead (http://www.i-bead.co.kr/bbs/pro_over_150_eng.php). firmware can be upgraded.

send them an email about ogg some time ago, but no response yet
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: thijs@rdb on 2003-06-29 02:12:08
edit: sorry... something went wrong and posted the same message twice...
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: dub_doctor on 2003-06-29 03:11:50
  Archos Jukebox Multimedia 20Gb 

Only plays mp3 audio files, but also plays divx video and shows jpegs. It works as an external hard disk and doesn't force you to use crappy software with copy protection. It's not perfect, but suits my needs fine and has given me no problems at all. And the next generation Archos units (AV140, AV300 series) look even better.

.dd.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Audible! on 2003-06-29 04:25:17
JVC XL-PM30 CD-based mp3 player which I bought to replace the Panasonic SL-MP35 I stepped on
It takes literally almost five seconds to change tracks, and the very nice LCD screen died soon after the warranty expired   

Don't buy the JVC! - it's more reminiscent of JVC home audio products than their car decks (not good).
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Soren on 2003-06-29 05:51:15
I just got a Panasonic SL-CT700 cd based mp3 player and i'm in love with. Awesome look, great sound, not too expensive and not bad at all battery life !!!   

Now i just deleted all my mpc, starting a collection of mp3 (well i have a strange feeling of walking back  )

Soren
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: SeiferV440 on 2003-10-12 22:15:38
I have the Silver Creative Nomad Jukebox (6GB)... Never leave home without it
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: fileman on 2003-10-12 22:20:53
My Jornada died some months ago (fell down, display was broken)... I bought a 15GB IPod (3rd gen.) now, and am happy with it. Using ephpod @ WinXP for uploading songs / contacts.

Regards, fileman.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: matgorb on 2003-10-12 22:45:31
got a panasonic cd/mp3 player, just does what i want, play mp3
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: NeoRenegade on 2003-10-12 22:58:17
Aside from my RioVolt SP-250 (hacked to use iRiver firmware) and my MpTrip, I also have a Sony MZ-R500 MiniDisc recorder, which I consider somewhat of an MP3 player. Okay, it doesn't play MP3's, but it's lossy-compressed audio nonetheless so I think it counts.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: krmathis on 2003-10-13 08:03:07
I got an iPod 40GB.
Very nice player in a small package! I simply love it... 
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: DonP on 2003-10-13 11:17:11
No longer waiting for an Ogg/Vorbis player.  Got a Neuros.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: svzurich on 2003-10-14 03:10:59
Replaced dead Iriver IMP-350 SlimX with the Iriver IMP-550 SlimX.  I love it!  Waiting for Ogg Vorbis (they have it working on the models but are waiting to release the firmwarwe), and hoping another firmware comes along to replace 1.20's stereo/mono radio bug, and its volume bug when using Extreme 3D.  Overall very pleased with the 550!
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Joe Bloggs on 2003-10-14 04:02:11
I have *3* now:

Nex IIe
Sony D-CJ01
Some old NAPA mp3 CD player

All crap apparently.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: caiman on 2003-10-14 07:16:33
right now, i have an Jamba U 100 (http://www.mp3-portable.de/_de/index.html) USB Stick (which seems to be a product from ?sigma-tel?) and am quite happy with it.
use it to carry my documents for work (as i´m not in an office, but do visit families and have a lot of paperwork to do), and have to do a documentation of my work with the families it lets me speech-record directly after the meetings onto the stick.
and by the way it has nice mp3 playback. i do my (trans)encodings with Lame@102 kb/s (good quality with 16kHz cutoff, which is enough for the underground and my aiwa earbuds  ), so there´s room for everything. good solution for me (and if my office now please would upgrade their computers, so i can connect6 this drive in any computer  , 'cos right now there´s just 2 station which have usb-connectors. that´s life, when working as an social worker
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Niwatori on 2003-10-18 15:15:08
= =" I own SL45i
i think it not bad for me
i encode my CDs to MP3-32Khz (with Lame 3.90.3  Vbr Bitrate 32-190 Kbps )
- -" ( becuase i don't have 128Mb MMC )
it's not bad for me but don't have use it anymore i think i can go with my cd player...  = ="

( a lot of hope it to support Ogg.... anyway i want to buy Ogg,Mpc Player base on CD than.. )

nin nin 
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: milatchi on 2003-11-06 15:34:15
iPod, and it hasn't let me down yet. I jog, do sit-ups, and a multitude of other exercises every night and the iPod has given me no problems. The iPod is definitely worth the $300.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: ScorLibran on 2003-11-06 15:53:25
Geez, this is an old thread!  A lot of new stuff has come out in a year-and-a-half.

Right now, I use my Sony CLIE NZ-90 PDA for portable MP3 playback (CBR-only    ).  But soon I'll be getting a Rio Karma 40GB, unless there will be a better portable solution that can do Vorbis and FLAC playback with at least 40GB of space.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: sthayashi on 2003-11-06 16:00:39
I've got a Neuros with the dual backpacks.  Can't say I'm entirely impressed with them, since you can lose all your songs if you sneeze the wrong way.  In retrospect, I probably should have gotten the iRiver iHP-100 or the Rio Karma, but that might just be buyer's remorse.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: rmoody on 2003-11-06 16:59:28
My first was a RioVolt, followed by another RioVolt (the black one with the FM receiver).  Next I got a Creative Zen USB 2, didn't like the USB2 sold it on eBay, got a FireWire version.  I recently got a Dell Axim, but as yet have not played any MP3's on it, I only have a 64MB CF card, not large enough to hold enough music to matter (I encode using the ape setting on LAME).  I didn't get the Axim for playing music anyway, that's just a nice side benifit I may take advantage of one day.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: 264556 on 2003-11-06 17:30:04
I recently replaced my Palm Tungsten T with a Treo 600 mobile phone.

This thing makes a pretty darned nice MP3 & Ogg player!
It's MUCH louder than the Palm Tungsten was, and does email, phone, pda stuff as well.
It has speaker phone too, so I can unplug the headphones and get crappy transistor quality sound while I'm working.

The only beef I really have with it is that it has a 2.5mm stereo jack so I need to use a converter with my headphones.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: CarbonLogic on 2003-11-07 07:32:22
A 40GB iPod and a couple of Minidisc players including one NetMD player.

I much prefer the iPod because it holds so much music and doubles as a external hard drive (tax deductible!). I love the automatic sync you get with iTunes and I can play back my Audible.com books with out needing to bypass the encryption, which is what I have to do to play back the .aa files on my minidisc players.

But the battery life on the minidisc players is far longer.

CL
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: fairyliquidizer on 2003-11-19 15:45:04
I started with Rio 300 (I think that was the model name, black thing, early MP3 player 32Mb, got it from a friend's wife who worked for them )

Now I have an MPIO FL-100, go look in awe at it's silversome beauty, with 256Mb of solid state memory and expandable with SD cards, my wife has bought me a 256Mb SD card and new headphones for Xmas! )

It's great, oh and it plays MP3 (including VBR) and WMA and is flash upgradeable.  There is no sign of AAC support though although their is a rumour that MPIO will introduce this on some of their players.

So if slim, sleak, sexy, solid state pleasure then go to www.mpio.com (http://www.mpio.com) and have a look!

Fairy
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Compact Dick on 2003-11-19 23:19:02
For my birthday, I bought myself an iRiver iMP-550 a week ago. Going great so far, no real complaints [other than line out is a bit weak] and eagerly awaiting  Ogg Vorbis support in December
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: novocane on 2003-11-20 00:00:52
I have a Expanium 201 the sound is good, plays every kind of mp3. the 300 series support also AAC LC but I bought this because it was a lot cheaper and does what I want (lot´s of CD´s in one only). Usually I use LAME -preset standard for my portable.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: jamesattufts on 2003-11-20 00:28:40
I've had a love/hate 1.5 years with my ipod--the hates being battery life and nero compatability, or lack thereof. I'm not sure what the point of a 40 gig one when you can only llsten to a few cds of music, with my aging battery, it's about 6, which is especially annoying since larger files drain it quicker and if you've got 40 gigs, it would be tempting to go lossless. It does sound great, and Apple was great about expeditiously getting it back to me when the headphone jack decided to only output mono. After the inevitable post x-mas sales, I'm in the market for the new iriver, you can't argue with ogg, a cool remote and not being tethered to the charger or itunes.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Eli on 2003-11-20 01:01:57
I just bought one. I settled on the iPod. Its far from perfect but after looking at everything that was available it was the best and I had decided that AAC/MP4 was the future (wish MPC was but I fear it will never be seen on a portable player).
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: rjamorim on 2003-11-20 01:16:41
IMO, one very needed feature in IPB is the hability to create editable polls - I.E, that the user can later change his vote.

When I voted at this poll, more than one year and half ago, I had no player. Now I own an Expanium. Also, most people aren't waiting for Vorbis support anymore, after the release of the Karma and the Neuros.

These polls simply aren't trustworthy anymore. Like the Codec poll. I bet several people changed their choice of codec once or twice since they voted there.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Jojo on 2003-11-27 14:05:52
@ rjamorim

I agree, however this forum has a feature that only allows you to view the results when you have voted - otherwise you'll loose your vote. I think this has been implemented because otherwise some people might base their opinion on other users’ opinion. Anyway, they just released ipb 2.0 alpha so they'll probably change this....how about if you post this in their suggestion forum.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: FAK7OR on 2003-12-22 01:55:00
I've had an 2:nd generation iPod for about a year now. I was very happy with it until it broke down 3 weeks ago. I just had to buy me a new one. Thought long and hard about it and finally decided to buy me a Jens of Sweden 512MB.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: rage- on 2003-12-22 03:12:37
I had the original Rio PMP300 when it first came out, and loved it. A year or two later, I upgraded to the Rio500, which in my opinion is the best flash mp3 player ever released. After that, I bought an Iomega HipZip, and took it back a week later because it erm, sucked. Stuck with the Rio500 for another year, then bought a RioVolt SP250, which I've used ever since. It might be a little on the large side, but it's a great mp3 cd player.

But I've since gotten tired of burning new CD's whenever I rip something new, so I plan to buy myself a Rio Karma in the coming weeks, if I don't get one for xmas that is (I've been hinting to various loved ones.. ).

Edit: Wow, I just realized how old this thread was.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: NeoRenegade on 2003-12-22 03:20:23
A fellow SP250 user! JOY!!!

Did you put iRiver firmware on yours? I'm lovin' it.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Steve999 on 2003-12-22 03:23:18
Crazy 'bout my Slimx IMP-350.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Galley on 2003-12-23 09:32:03
Palm Zire 71 with RealOne Player and a 256MB Lexar SD card.  (I bet your MP3 player doesn't have a 320 x 320 16-bit color screen!)
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Bongo yep on 2004-01-16 05:16:17
I have a samsung yepp with 32MB of flash memory that I bought off a friend for £20 pounds.Sounds great, looks nice , eats batterys and users a very tempramental  parallel port connection to transfer files if I'm lucky or crash the software.

If I could upgrade this player for xtra battery life,usb or firewire and 5 Gigs I'd be a happy chappy  .

But I can't so I'm not. 
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: JoshuaL on 2004-01-20 06:15:14
My portable mp3 player doesn't fall into any of the categories listed.  It's a portable dvd-mp3 player, the Sony MDPAP20U.  It's not quite on the iRiver level as far as feature-set (not firmware upgradeable and no real user-customizable options) but it does everything I need as far as easy access to all folders on a DVD+RW and has the modes I use most (shuffle all and folder play) as well as resume.  Power options are also limited as there is no DC adapter, but the internal lithium battery usually provides enough power per outing.  (I recommend an inverter if you're going to be using it for more than 8 hours at a time.)

Not recommended for jogging due to weight, but if you're looking for something to play a large collection on DVD (and like me can't find any hard drive players large enough) this is a viable (albeit quirky) alternative.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: dub_doctor on 2004-01-20 06:32:10
Quote
... but if you're looking for something to play a large collection on DVD (and like me can't find any hard drive players large enough) ...

Is 80 Gb (http://archos.com/products/prw_500570.html) not large enough for you???    (even if it is a bit $$$) 
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Sid59 on 2004-01-20 06:38:46
3 of them

Sony MP3 / CD Player
RCA Kazoo! flash based . 192 MBs
40 gig iPod
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: JoshuaL on 2004-01-20 07:01:54
Quote
Is 80 Gb (http://archos.com/products/prw_500570.html) not large enough for you???    (even if it is a bit $$$) 

Nope.  I'd need a minimum of 100 GB for my entire collection (encoded using -aps my 800+ cds are over the 80 GB limit); preferably 120 GB to allow room for expansion.  (And yes, the cost is prohibitive for the Archos player ... mine cost $170 US after rebate.)
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: AtaqueEG on 2004-01-20 08:41:26
What would be the best HD-based player to get?

I have been thinking about an iPod, but I think the battery life could be a problem, and it isd just too damn expensive... but it has AAC support...
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: mj-barton on 2004-01-29 06:26:44
I love my iPod.  The battery life problem is a myth.  There is a faq answering that at http://www.ipodlounge.com (http://www.ipodlounge.com)
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: JohnV on 2004-01-29 06:40:07
I think my first "AAC portable" will be Nokia 6230 (http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,8764,47676,00.html) mobile phone. Ok it's not gonna be any high capasity (currently the biggest MMC card available is 1 GB), but since I carry my phone always (and 6230 is small and weights only 97g/3.4 oz.), I always also have it with me.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: AtaqueEG on 2004-01-29 19:38:29
Quote
I think my first "AAC portable" will be Nokia 6230 (http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,8764,47676,00.html) mobile phone. Ok it's not gonna be any high capasity (currently the biggest MMC card available is 1 GB), but since I carry my phone always (and 6230 is small and weights only 97g/3.4 oz.), I always also have it with me.

Do you know when is it going to be released and what's its MSRP going to be?

I checked in some online stores, but I couldn't find it.

And I'm very interested...
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: JohnV on 2004-01-29 19:49:20
Quote
Do you know when is it going to be released and what's its MSRP going to be?

I checked in some online stores, but I couldn't find it.

And I'm very interested...

Nothing certain, but it should be soon. Most seem to think it will be out sometime in Feb.

I don't know about the price, but it will prolly be something around 400 € according to rumors.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: AtaqueEG on 2004-01-29 19:53:37
Quote
something around 400 € according to rumors.

Ouch...

But I think it's OK for the semi-PDA, AAC-player and cellphone combo...

Having 1GB of memory with the MMC card puts it in mini iPod range...

Definitely interested...
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: DonP on 2004-01-29 20:25:57
Quote
Quote
something around 400 € according to rumors.

Ouch...

I don't know how marketing works in Europe, but in the US the hot new phones are heavily discounted if you commit to a service contract or extension to an existing contract.  You might get it for 25% of retail in return for $30-40/month for 2 years. for the phone service.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Thasp on 2004-01-29 20:31:01
I've a Panasonic SL-CT800, a nice MP3-CD player, and a Rio Karma, since my CD burner decided to have a fit in my one and only laptop, and I don't feel like replacing it at the moment. Wonderful battery life and multi-format support, along with a nice easy to hold casing make this my favorite player.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: tpc on 2004-01-29 23:10:54
I've had my diva mp3 player for a long time now. Not the best around but it was cheap at the time and it uses compaq flash memory which i can also use for my digi cam 
Might get a new player when one with ogg support gets available.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: jormartr on 2004-01-30 00:19:59
Couldn't wait to ogg/aac support onto relative cheap CD players and get today my Iriver ChromeX (iMP-150)
It has everything I want, but now I have to upgrade its firmware to 1.30 (it comes with 1.03).
I think I'll use WMA instead of MP3, it think it is a better choise in the range of 128kbps (VBR), is this true?
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: AtaqueEG on 2004-01-30 00:47:48
Quote
I think I'll use WMA instead of MP3, it think it is a better choise in the range of 128kbps (VBR), is this true?

Seeing your member number and joining date, one would think you have been here long enough to have seen this (http://www.rjamorim.com/test/128extension/results.html). 
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Dologan on 2004-01-30 00:54:48
Quote
Seeing your member number and joining date, one would think you have been here long enough to have seen this.

Compadre, Roberto's 128 kbps test refers to WMA Pro, which is not quite the same as WMA, or is there any hardware player that supports WMA Pro yet?
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: AtaqueEG on 2004-01-30 00:59:27
A huevo 
What I implied is that maybe he got confused.
I just wanted him to know that the "good" WMA is not supported by any current portable.

Right know, the best choice in the 128k range seems to be AAC.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: rickshaw on 2004-01-30 01:01:26
I have a iRiver 20 GB HDD player which supports OGG.  At q8 the unit holds 180 hours of music and has a battery life in excess of 12 hours.....sorry ipoders...your thing doesn't come close.  If you use LAME VBR the battery only lasts 14 hours...sorry 

Also have a iRiver flash player ifp-395 which is a 512MB player...it too supports ogg...the battery single AA only lasts for 20 hours on playtime...not bad??

Both units sound wondeful...highly recommended

rickshaw
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: psyraver on 2004-01-31 09:23:49
I have the Creative Nomad Jukebox2(10gb) it was a great deal for $161.  It sucks, it can only play mp3,wma and wav.  Can't wait till I get my iRiver iHP.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: unmake on 2004-01-31 16:04:36
Panasonic MP3-CD discman, their higher end black model from a year ago. Still seems like the best bang for the buck, certainly a better deal than another Sony car CD-changer (I've had two of those things die on me, at around $200/ea..)
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Alyson1 on 2004-05-06 01:44:18
I have the Panasonic MP3 cd player too and just got an amazing Archos AV 320 Video mp4/mp3 audio player. It is really amazing stuff, the video screen is nearly 4" with an amazing picture. Holds 20g or between 10 and 40 hrs (depending on compression) of video and untold mp3's. A lotta fun 
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: rjamorim on 2004-05-06 01:54:46
That poll is too old now.

When I voted, years ago, I voted for "Not yet, But I'm about to get one."

Now, I have an Expanium.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Felix on 2004-05-06 04:40:05
I have a Palm Tungsten T3, that plays MP3 and Ogg Vorbis, and I'm craving for an iRiver HDD-based player, perhaps some iGP, possibly the H140 or the H340; probably Santa will tell me which one. 
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: linus on 2004-05-06 10:14:15
I have an old AVC Soul Player, it has been a truly optimal purchase.
Solid and resistant to falls (up to 1.80 meters...  ).
Upgraded with iriver iMP 100 firmware.
Used for more than 2 year, nearly every day for 1-2 hours.

Now, I am waiting for a flash player like the
iriver iFP 700 - 800 series (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=21248&view=findpost&p=207823)
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: MugFunky on 2004-05-08 08:14:59
i got a panasonic CD/mp3 player.

it's kinda crappy - definitely not gapless.  it doesn't think about spinning up the CD until the track is finished...

but i got it as a door prize at a conference, so who can complain?  it'll handle lame --aps well enough for me.  i'd like a more powerful headphone amp though - it's always on full volume and still not enough for my more dynamic songs.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Iconoclast_a on 2004-05-08 08:56:53
Quote
Now, I have an Expanium.

Hey Roberto, does it play iTunes encoded MP4s?
What about Nero HE-AAC?
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Garathor on 2004-05-08 10:00:17
I have an iRiver iMP-400, and I'm afraid I'm not happy with it. I wish i had bought a regular portable CD player instead.

My iMP-400 is having great difficulties reading my discs (well burned discs. Taiyo Yuden manufactured, burned at a speed i know they work well with in my Asus CD-R/W drive). It will often add distortion to the sound (especially audio CDs, but also mp3 CDs. Not only burned CDs, but also original audio CDs), and sometimes it won't even play all tracks on a disc.

And the fact that it doesn't support gapless playback of lame mp3s, and the ogg vorbis firmware development is taking forever, is also extremely annoying.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: ErikS on 2004-05-08 11:16:31
Quote
Quote
Now, I have an Expanium.

Hey Roberto, does it play iTunes encoded MP4s?
What about Nero HE-AAC?

When I tested Expanium 411 vs 431 I found that 411 plays .aac but not mp4. 431 plays neither.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Andavari on 2004-05-08 17:25:44
I've thought about getting a portable player for about 4 years, but everytime I think I'm ready to get one the only one's I see in local stores only support mp3 or mp3/wma, and the cost doesn't calculate to me especially when only seeing two formats supported, plus they wouldn't be able to hold 2000 plus high quality compressed albums.

After having waited so long and still not purchasing due to them not supporting all of the formats I use which is a requirement I've come to the conclusion that the only reason I wanted a portable player in the first place was not to take my music with me, but to plug it into my home stereo. What I plan to do will not envolve additional storage to buy, and no messing with uploading to a device. The plan is to buy some good quality wireless headphones, and/or some good quality wireless speakers and connect them to my PC which does support all the formats I use.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: rjamorim on 2004-05-08 18:10:37
Quote
Hey Roberto, does it play iTunes encoded MP4s?
What about Nero HE-AAC?

It's an Expanium 211. Doesn't even play AAC

But, aside that, it's a very good player. Plays all MP3 bitrates, batteries last reasonably long, and it's quite solid.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Cygnus X1 on 2004-05-08 18:24:40
I currently own two portables (well, three if you count my laptop): the iRiver IFP-380T recorder/player, and a 15GB 3G iPod. I can't say enough good things about the iRiver, except that I wish I had bought the 1GB version instead 

My iPod, on the other hand, has largely been a dissapointment IMO. I was initially unhappy with its poor battery life, gaps between songs, easily-scratched shiny (and sissy, IMO ) finish, and almost complete lack of bass. Now, I have found that it f*&^s up my --preset insane classical and jazz recordings as well. (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=21458&hl=)
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: 127.0.0.1 on 2004-08-03 20:25:35
A refurbished 20GB NOMAD Jukebox 3 which looks very pristine and functions well... for only $170

Works very well with the PlayDock PD200 (it was designed for those jukeboxes  ), good line out sound quality.

And the major plus (for me) is that it uses laptop harddisks, which means I can upgrade to 100GB harddisks when Toshiba lets them out! Now, which other HD players can do this, huh?
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: DreamTactix291 on 2004-08-04 00:18:12
iRiver H120 hard drive player.  I love this little player so much.  Vorbis support is nice so I can finally abandon mp3.  Musepack support would be great but beggers can't be choosers I guess.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: audioflex on 2004-08-04 14:07:17
I have a 20GB ipod , and one of those sony mp3/atrac3 CD players  (hey, sometimes i need more than ~8 hours of battery  ).
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: rossthiof on 2004-08-21 10:13:41
1. Creative Jukebox 3 with a 40 GB Harddisk (for long journeys)
2. Iriver IFP-380T  (for short trips, sports)

Both work very well 
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: kjoonlee on 2004-08-21 10:29:27
<off topic>
Quote
Musepack support would be great but beggers can't be choosers I guess.[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=231620"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

It's beggar, not begger. Beggars tended to ask for things, so asking for something came to be known later as begging. Beg comes from beggar, not the other way round.
</off topic>
I think I voted "waiting for a Vorbis portable" previously, but now I am an owner of two portables. One is a phone from LG, which plays my --alt-preset abr files, and the other is a MobiBlu DAH-1200 flash-based player with 128 megs of memory.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: wkwai on 2004-08-21 14:02:16
I had an IPOD 20 GB... I must say that being able to play back AAC is very important to me.. (I was working on an AAC encoder..)

But IPOD seemed to have some conformance problems with MP3..


wkwai
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Digisurfer on 2004-08-21 14:41:26
Quote
But IPOD seemed to have some conformance problems with MP3..

Really? Care to elaborate and/or provide links? As I'm about to buy one for my wife and we have never owned a portable before, I would really like to hear more about this. Especially since everything we have is in MP3 format (more than half a mix of LAME --aps and --ape).
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: DreamTactix291 on 2004-08-22 00:28:50
Quote
<off topic>
Quote
Musepack support would be great but beggers can't be choosers I guess.[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=231620"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

It's beggar, not begger. Beggars tended to ask for things, so asking for something came to be known later as begging. Beg comes from beggar, not the other way round.
</off topic>

Hmm, interesting.  I never knew that.  I got my daily grammar lesson at HA 

I believe wkwai is talking about the problems iPods tend to have with 320 cbr mp3s.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Q-W-Y on 2004-08-22 20:00:11
I mean, that if you need recording, then only one is the best -  Neuros
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Dead Goon on 2004-08-22 20:31:30
I've got a 20GB 2nd Gen iPod.

I regret buying it now as I've never even got close to filling it to capacity (should have gone for 10GB, maybe even the 5GB version) and I haven't even listen to it for several months now - I'm not 100% sure where it is to be honest 
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: pika2000 on 2004-08-22 20:42:02
-Rio PMP300 32MB  Yep, the original Parallel port one.
-Rio 600 64MB
-Sony DC-J01 (CD)
-Sony D-NE9 (CD)
-Panasonic SL-SX430 (CD)
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: ElementDave on 2004-08-22 23:19:01
I'd be curious to know how many of you think we're likely to see portables of the future with support for lossless codecs, or think we're more likely to go straight to uncompressed audio once storage capacity is sufficient.  I don't know whether the additional expenses associated with the implementation of the appropriate decoding support and then having to deal with the licensing issues, etc., for at most a 40% increase in audio capacity, would be of any cost benefit to companies versus simply increasing the storage capacity by an equivalent amount.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: DreamTactix291 on 2004-08-22 23:32:21
Rio Karma supports FLAC and it might support WAV.  My H120 supports WAV.  But neither are large enough to really want to put entire lossless collections on them.  And the larger files cause the HDD to spin up more resulting in reduced battery life per charge.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: setSuna on 2004-08-23 00:21:01
Yeah, I have a Rio Karma.
Which also supports OGG. The only thing I don't like about it is it is only 20gbs! I have 45gbs of music, so... eh. I am looking into getting a 60-80gb player, but I dunno if there are any good ones, and the ones I have seen are extremely expensive. So, eh, I don't know what I am going to do.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: pika2000 on 2004-08-23 08:31:06
Hard-drives will continue to grow in capacity, and shrink in size. However, the risk for failure would probably still there. This is why I try to stick with a removable media (ie. CD). The next step would be a portable MP3/DVD player. Although not as big in capacity as HD-based players, and size is still "CD-size", imagine the amount of music you can put thanks to the cheap price of DVD blanks. Hopefully, a manufacture would start developing this kind of portables, although doubtful since it seems every manufactures form Taiwan and Korea are making a "me-too" HD MP3 players.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: gorgekko on 2004-08-23 08:38:15
I have a Nomad Jukebox Zen NX (30GB) that I bought used. Outside of a front that occasionally pops off because of Creative's stupid way of ensuring the battery is user replaceable, I'm fairly satisfied with it.

I may go with a larger iPod in the next year or so.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Matyas on 2004-08-23 09:11:15
Nex II with two CF Type II Cards (128Mb and 512Mb).
I think that with the nowadays cheap flash cards there is no need to wait for mpc or ogg support in players, since you are free to store mp3 192kbps music on your cards, and still you got a plenty of music on a single card.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Q-W-Y on 2004-08-23 11:32:36
Quote
Yeah, I have a Rio Karma.
Which also supports OGG. The only thing I don't like about it is it is only 20gbs! I have 45gbs of music, so... eh. I am looking into getting a 60-80gb player, but I dunno if there are any good ones, and the ones I have seen are extremely expensive. So, eh, I don't know what I am going to do.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=236315"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Try neuros..

Neuros II 80 GB bundle USB 2.0
Price: $480
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Digisurfer on 2004-08-23 11:51:05
Quote
Try neuros..

Neuros II 80 GB bundle USB 2.0
Price: $480

This is the first time I've seen this player mentioned. After a quick glance at the site, I have to say that is one really sharp looking player. I've been debating between the iPod and iRiver 40GB units as a birthday presetn for the wife, and now the Rio Karma since I just switched to FLAC permanently tonight. The thing that has been making me lean towards the iPod is simplicity, as well as the extras. For example I really like the idea behind the all in one FM transmitter / power cable made by Monster for car use. I also like the fact that it's easily rechargeable via firewire and USB (wife will be using it in car and at work, and much more often than me). One thing that turns me off though is the battery life and their replaceability. How does the Neros II 80GB fair in this regard, and how well does the built in FM transmitter work? I welcome all opinions!
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Q-W-Y on 2004-08-23 14:39:43
Quote
Quote
Try neuros..

Neuros II 80 GB bundle USB 2.0
Price: $480

This is the first time I've seen this player mentioned. After a quick glance at the site, I have to say that is one really sharp looking player. I've been debating between the iPod and iRiver 40GB units as a birthday presetn for the wife, and now the Rio Karma since I just switched to FLAC permanently tonight. The thing that has been making me lean towards the iPod is simplicity, as well as the extras. For example I really like the idea behind the all in one FM transmitter / power cable made by Monster for car use. I also like the fact that it's easily rechargeable via firewire and USB (wife will be using it in car and at work, and much more often than me). One thing that turns me off though is the battery life and their replaceability. How does the Neros II 80GB fair in this regard, and how well does the built in FM transmitter work? I welcome all opinions!
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
(http://index.php?act=findpost&pid=236412")


FM transmiter works very well, it has also possibility of connecting external antena.
Look there: [a href="http://www.neurosaudio.com/community/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=24]Neuros MyFi forums[/url]
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Digisurfer on 2004-08-25 14:08:18
Cool, big thanks for cluing me in to the Neuros player. It looks like an awesome option with a bright future. And, in case anyone is curious, I just read that the firmware for it went open source yesterday. So it's future just got even brighter (have fingers crossed for more playback formats such as FLAC & MPC, plus gapless support).

Read up on open source firmware/software here: Link (http://open.neurosaudio.com/)
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: wkwai on 2004-08-26 14:06:18
Quote
Quote
But IPOD seemed to have some conformance problems with MP3..

Really? Care to elaborate and/or provide links? As I'm about to buy one for my wife and we have never owned a portable before, I would really like to hear more about this. Especially since everything we have is in MP3 format (more than half a mix of LAME --aps and --ape).
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=235998"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]



There was a recent discussion ( a few weeks ago) about IPOD distorting MP3 files.. I too had similar problem.. You can search the forum for it.. (I couldn't remember where..)
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: pilot52 on 2004-09-03 12:35:58
Maybe It's nothing to do with the poll but,

Does ifp-300s(iriver flash type player) plays ogg vorbis

in the american firmware?

i live in korea, but i don't have time to test the american firmware

forgive me that i'm not good at English
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: kennedyb4 on 2004-09-03 13:16:20
Recently purchased a MuVo tx 128meg. Excellent unit for running. Holds about twenty APS files.

I had some concerns about output power prior to buying but it has more than enough oomph to push my KSC - 35's.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Rip Van Woofer on 2004-09-03 14:58:29
I guess it's a function of age (I'm 50) but having portable music isn't a big thing to me anymore. My Walkman-style CD player mostly gathers dust. Sometimes I bring it to the gym. For most of the activities I enjoy such as bicycling and fly-fishing a portable would either be an intrusion or a danger. I don't even use the in-dash CDP much in my car except for long trips (but then, I drive a WRX and that's entertaining in itself!).

Sometimes I'm tempted to get an iPod just because they're 'cool' and I'm a Mac user.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: krmathis on 2004-09-03 16:43:46
This thread is OLD, so I have switched portable player already.
Previously I had an 40GB iPod, now I have an iPod mini. I'm very happy with it! 
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: simpl3x on 2004-09-03 17:40:42
Quote
I'd be curious to know how many of you think we're likely to see portables of the future with support for lossless codecs, or think we're more likely to go straight to uncompressed audio once storage capacity is sufficient.  I don't know whether the additional expenses associated with the implementation of the appropriate decoding support and then having to deal with the licensing issues, etc., for at most a 40% increase in audio capacity, would be of any cost benefit to companies versus simply increasing the storage capacity by an equivalent amount.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=236307"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


I don't have a player now since nothing will hold the amount of music I am currently busy encoding. I am using Apple Lossless, and have purchased a Lacie terabyte disk system to hold the several thousand CDs. My estimation is that my music will occupy about 600 gigs. I agree that lossless compression is the future of consumer audio, and would really like to get something like a pro system which could feed directly to a dac. My time is limited, so I chose to go directly through iTunes rather than encoding with something like Flac and ripping via Nero. The convenience of labeling albums automagically, and ripping reasonably well is good enough for my needs. I have come to get much more use (and value) out of my collection than I would have ever with the music in CD form.

I am considering transcoding to AAC 256 for general listening, but the music will likely require a 200 gig player. I have thought about hacking a spent iPod to accept a standard hard disk, until then I'll feed my system via and Airport Express.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: dedalus on 2004-09-25 11:26:25
Quote
I don't have a player now since nothing will hold the amount of music I am currently busy encoding. I am using Apple Lossless, and have purchased a Lacie terabyte disk system to hold the several thousand CDs. My estimation is that my music will occupy about 600 gigs. I agree that lossless compression is the future of consumer audio, and would really like to get something like a pro system which could feed directly to a dac. My time is limited, so I chose to go directly through iTunes rather than encoding with something like Flac and ripping via Nero. The convenience of labeling albums automagically, and ripping reasonably well is good enough for my needs. I have come to get much more use (and value) out of my collection than I would have ever with the music in CD form.

I am considering transcoding to AAC 256 for general listening, but the music will likely require a 200 gig player. I have thought about hacking a spent iPod to accept a standard hard disk, until then I'll feed my system via and Airport Express.


That's a large project to be undertaking with a proprietary codec and questionable ripping software. It's a good thing that Apple Lossless is just that, because you will likely be transcoding it down the line, maybe not to FLAC but that is the most likely candidate. Ripping in EAC secure mode, offset corrected, is certainly worth your time as well since you are already knee-deep ripping - what? - 1500 albums?
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: DonP on 2004-09-25 20:07:23
Quote
One thing that turns me off though is the battery life and their replaceability. How does the Neros II 80GB fair in this regard, and how well does the built in FM transmitter work? I welcome all opinions!
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=236412"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


I can't find the thread on their forum at the moment, but the word was the batteries are standard types (NiMH AA for the flash pack, some Lithium Ion for the HD) which are user replaceable if  you are handy with a screwdriver.. voiding the warrantee, but if it was under warantee, the battery would be free.  Post warantee they had some replacement price that was low enough that is probably wouldn't  pay to do it yourself other than to save the shipping time.

FM transmit has a little hiss compared to headphones, but not anything you would notice in a car.  Initially it was too quiet, so the company added a transmit volume control in a firmware update.  They are pretty responsive to user feedback.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: DonP on 2004-09-25 20:17:57
Quote
I'd be curious to know how many of you think we're likely to see portables of the future with support for lossless codecs, or think we're more likely to go straight to uncompressed audio once storage capacity is sufficient. 
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=236307"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


It isn't just storage size; it's battery life, access time, etc.  On a P4 desktop, compressing and writing flac is faster than writing uncompressed wav to disk.
If it turns out to use less juice to decode half size files than to read full size ones, then the advantage is with lossless.

edit: plus, while storage gets bigger, it seems there is always a smaller format coming out a few steps behind in capacity which will tempt the audio toy makers.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Tangerine on 2004-10-14 22:45:23
Yes, Archos Gmini 400
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: tangent on 2004-10-15 04:22:30
This poll probably needs to be restarted.. it's > 2 years old and most people might have changed their portables by now.

I'm using a Nokia 6230 with a 512MB MMC card. Plays AAC (no HE though  ) and MP3s. I think that's the best option for me since I don't like carrying too many different devices around.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: ckjnigel on 2004-10-15 07:26:04
The answer is yes: I'm in day 12 with my Rio Carbon, abetted by Sony EX71 canalphones.
Oh, and, increasingly, aided by files specially processed for street listening with Audacity.  I suppose that belongs in a new thread, but I wonder if others have experimented with compression, renormalization and amplifying of CD rips in Audacity.  I'm hearing things in Vivaldi and Ravel I'd never suspected were there -- very exciting!
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: screaminghell on 2004-10-15 08:56:47
Quote
This poll probably needs to be restarted.. it's > 2 years old and most people might have changed their portables by now.

[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=247838"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Agreed.... I'm not using my iRiver iMP-400 CD based player anymore, since I got a Creative Zen Xtra 60 GB a few weeks ago. I've got two low capacity flash players also, mainly used as USB sticks these says though.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: jcrab66 on 2004-12-15 16:06:42
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...
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: svzurich on 2004-12-15 18:06:42
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
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: khiloa on 2005-04-09 06:40:52
I have rio karma and love it!

Sorry if I've already posted this before.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Nero on 2005-04-09 11:27:16
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. 
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: DonP on 2005-04-09 12:06:30
Quote
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.

[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=289284"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


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.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: svzurich on 2005-04-09 13:26:35
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!
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: chemeye on 2005-04-09 19:03:16
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
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: DonP on 2005-04-09 19:16:24
Quote
Made the switch 2 months back to Sirius satellite radio, ain't looking back!  Sirius rocks!

[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=289307"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


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.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Nero on 2005-04-09 19:35:22
Quote
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.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=289292"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

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.

Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: DonP on 2005-04-09 21:33:47
Quote
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.

Quote
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.
Quote
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.

Quote
  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.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Nero on 2005-04-10 00:55:39
Quote
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.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=289405"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

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. 
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: DonP on 2005-04-10 01:16:21
Quote
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.

Quote
If I walk past a 40GB Rio Karma on sale somewhere, and I'm in the right mood, I'll buy it anyway. 
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a] (http://index.php?act=findpost&pid=289435")



[a href="http://www.ubid.com/actn/opn/getpage.asp?AuctionId=10349230&refLoc=searchall]karma from ubid.com[/url]

This link is good for 3 days, but they may have another batch when this is gone.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: tgoose on 2005-04-12 20:03:27
I have one that broke. Does that count?
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: El Duderino on 2005-07-31 03:11:43
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.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: DreamTactix291 on 2005-07-31 05:44:06
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.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Gallvs on 2005-07-31 08:36:35
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. 
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: heavymetalwiseone on 2005-07-31 09:09:59
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.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: dobz on 2005-07-31 16:19:14
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.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: jazznaz on 2005-08-07 15:41:34
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...
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: legg on 2005-08-07 15:45:56
Sony Clie TJ37 here.
I have Aeroplayer installed and it can play ogg and mp3.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: rjamorim on 2005-08-07 16:41:51
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.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Casagrande on 2005-08-07 19:39:09
Philips hdd 120.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: vinnie97 on 2005-08-08 00:31:22
Quote
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.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=318404"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


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...
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: sdexp on 2005-08-08 19:49:38
We need more vendors into OGG. I know it will come someday.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: ching-3 on 2005-08-13 00:29:22
Sorry if this is off topic but, is it possible to make an iPod play vorbis files? If so, how?
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: krazy on 2005-08-13 08:13:43
Quote
Sorry if this is off topic but, is it possible to make an iPod play vorbis files? If so, how?
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a] (http://index.php?act=findpost&pid=319764")
[a href="http://www.ipodlinux.org/FAQ#Is_there_an_OGG_player.3F]http://www.ipodlinux.org/FAQ#Is_there_an_OGG_player.3F[/url]
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Pestilence. on 2008-07-12 17:35:12
I have an iRiver T10 512MB.

+For me, it sounded better than iPod.
+Batterie are lasts for about 60h
+AA Batteries
+Almost indestructible (Mine was swiming in the sea, and was washed in a washing machine).
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: lunkhead on 2009-02-07 22:51:40
sansa clip 2gb
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: peld on 2009-02-08 01:18:57
Ive got a Samsung YP-T10 - plays MP3, WMA, AAC and OGG and has a bluetooth adapter built in

And it's sound is just awesome...
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: TREX6662k6 on 2009-02-08 01:42:45
Start a new topic perhaps?

One that isn't so old and has a working vote?
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: Sound-of-Muzak on 2009-03-14 20:49:52
Yes, but I don't use it.
Title: Do you have a portable
Post by: tpijag on 2009-03-14 22:06:13
Can we stop these crap postings.

terry