What's the Best Portable Digital Audio Player?
2 years ago
11 Comments
This question used to have quite a few "conditions", as I was looking for a specific player; Now that I"ve found the DAP I was looking for, this question is being expanded to include any portable audio player. A free-for-all, if ya will.
So, what's your weapon of choice when it comes to portable audio?
Tags: audio, dap, flac, mp3, music, ogg, products, technology
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Topic Details
This topic was started by holotone on March 17th, 2006. 77 grupies have voted on one or more of the 11 answers.
Tags: audio, dap, flac, mp3, music, ogg, products, technology
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Sorry about the funky formatting in my description. For some reason the form didn't translate my line breaks correctly.
I was gonna say PSP, but it doesn't fit your requirements.
You realize that style and functionality aren't mutually exclusive, right?
This entire question seems like a thinly veiled attempt to flash your nerd e-peen.
Actually, it's a very legitimate question; I was looking for a DAP that fit some very specific needs - Because I wasn't familiar with the latest & greatest DAPs, I posted the topic and went about hunting. The topic remained without an answer for over a month, during which I found and received the player I was looking for. Once I saw that it was what I was looking for, I answered my own question.
The H320 actually failed on a few key points for me, namely no FLAC support, no WAV recording, and no FM transmit. Either way, it was the closest DAP match I could find, and for the money, it was the perfect fit for me.
As for the iPoo fanboys out there, I hope that DRM is treating you well ;)
The best one I saw was the Rio Karma. It did FLAC, OGG, WMA, mp3 (and variants, like mp3pro), and some other stuff.
However, Rio was bought and pretty much closed down. So the only way to get one of these is to get it used.
As for FM transmit, you won't find any that have that built in. But Belkin sells an FM transmitter that you can find for $10 (And there are tons of others), which is compatible with everything.
FLAC is going to be the hardest thing for you to find, since it's a processor-intensive decoder. Are you right to FLAC? Or using an ogg wrapper?
Assuming you're ripping the files yourself (no one sells FLAC files), you're better off compressing to AAC using its lossless quality. Using AAC will get you a hair-better battery life than mp3 also.
I suggest checking out http://www.dapreview.net for some ipod alternatives.
Thanks for the comments, Sam!
There is one player that I am aware of that has built in FM transmit capability ( The Neuros Jukebox: http://www.neurosaud...okie%5Ftest=1 ). It's got open source firmware, which is a big plus in my book as well - Unfortunately in price comparisons to other DAPs, I just couldn't afford it.
Also, although Apple will tell you otherwise, AAC is not a lossless codec; You may be thinking of ALAC ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Lossless ), which uses the same file extension and container (m4a/quicktime) as an AAC. Although it is a bit less processor intensive than FLAC, it is (unlike AAC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding ) a highly proprietary format. And as much as I like storing my music in a licensable, DRMable format, I think I'll pass. :)
Oh, I forgot to mention; My FLAC encoded audio is mostly live / bootleg / unofficial audio that I have traded throughout the years ( http://db.etree.org/rabble/ for a VERY out of date tradelist). In that scene, FLAC (and sometimes SHN) are the only "acceptable" formats - Anything else is considered lossy.
Holotone, I'm not enough of an audiophile to care about lossless formats, so I'm more interested in a good, lossy format, and looking to rid myself of the iPod I bought in a moment of sheepish stupidity. What are your thoughts on Ogg Vorbis?
Ogg is great. But it's processor intensive when it comes to decoding. At equivalent quality levels, ogg files can be about 70% the size of mp3 files. However, they take more processor work to decode, so your battery life drains faster. WMA files are the same way.
AAC's probably different. Contrary to what Wikipedia says, AAC itself isn't protected. However, it's built so that it's easy to add a DRM scheme to it. (Apple's FairPlay, for example). AAC files end up a little smaller than mp3 files, and take up a little less battery life.
That said: according to some reviews, the AAC encoders aren't all that good at the moment. So if you're using the latest LAME encoder, your mp3s are within a hair of AAC files (quality wise).
holotone - I was thinking about ALAC. WMA has a lossess format though. WMA is just a pain in the ass though. I'd avoid it. (There are various versions of WMA codecs, and they're all just called WMA - screw that)
I heartily second Sam's OGG comments, with the addition that as an added bonus, OGG is an open-source, unlicensable codec. This means that hardware & software manufacturers don't have to pay money to use the decoders, decreasing the cost for the end user. It's also constantly under development, with new improvements coming out all the time.
For the record, Wikipedia doesn't call AAC a "protected" format:
"Apple Computer brought mainstream attention to AAC by announcing that its iTunes and iPod products would support songs in MPEG-4 AAC format (via a firmware update for older iPods), and that customers could download popular songs in a *protected version* of the format via the iTunes Music Store."
Anything within the Quicktime container, as far as I know, has the potential to be DRM'd. Which, in the end, is enough of a reason for me not to use it.
In conclusion? For my "money", nothing beats FLAC & OGG for encoding, in no small part due to their open nature and VERY high quality.
iPod!