Audio player need help

[mcwkm]

Ok so I can't find my Rio Karma anymore and it's probably time to get a new audio player anyways but I don't know the audio quality on any devices now a days. I'm looking for something with good audio quality. Filetype support should include flac, ogg, mp3, wma. I don't need video support at all, I just want something to play music. A device that is linux compatible is a must also as I am usually on a linux system. Does anyone have any recommendations?

[mcwkm]

I have some more time off so I'm doing some research. I have found that the only major brands that support flac are iriver sandisk and cowon.

I own an old flash sandisk player and love it but it was from the pre sansa line. It doesn't support flac but it did get run over by a lawnmower and worked after changing the battery. To my understanding SanDisk quality has gone somewhat downhill and their newer mp3 players have not received such great reviews.

I have never used a Cowon product but they seem to have the best reviews of the group.

I've used iRiver players before and they never wowed me with quality and their reviews seem the worst.

All 3 manufacturers had 0 hard drive players and extra space is always a plus. I had my karma which had a 20gb hard drive filled almost at all times.

I'm just looking for suggestions right now cost isn't an object as work starts up again tomorrow and I will have a steady income until october. All the information I gathered was off cnet's mp3 player section so it's a fairly small opinion right now.

[spock]

[Rashy]

Have you considered using RockBox? It provides FLAC capabilities to every device that it works on: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/b.....WhyRockbox

Here are all the codecs it has: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/b.....ent_status

So you could get any player supported by RockBox.
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Rashy!

[mcwkm]

I've looked into RockBox before and it doesn't look like something I would use. I enjoy the simplicity of having the product I want out of the box.

I am looking at the Cowon iAudio D2 and Cowon S9 and Archos 5 internet media tablet. Does anyone have or has used any of these and can comment on them?

[ClickFanatic]

I have a Meize M6 Miniplayer. It works fine for me, but I am sure there are better devices available by now.
Anyway, among the file types it supports are FLAC and Ogg Vorbis (.ogg). I believe WMA is supported as well, but I don't have any Windows Media encoded files, so you might want to check that.
I believe .cue files are also supported, but I never tried using them (I always re-encode lossless data to a high quality MP3).

Anyway, there are some things that I dislike about this player. For example: it updates the music library 'standalone' (ie. it rescans whenever it has had a USB connection). The positive side is that it doesn't need any software on the system (it even uses simple USB Mass Storage for everything, so it is pretty much OS independent), but it can be slightly annoying. I usually have the time to wait for it to finish though.

Another thing I worry about is that I might break the touchstrip (the 'iPod clickwheel' in a different shape) one time. It seems quite fragile and sometimes responds a little quirky (which usually resolves itself after a while, though), but it has been working good so far.

One of the more positive aspects is that the sound quality is awesome. Of course you'll need the right listening equipment for that (I have Sennheiser MX300 earplugs, not the best, but far above average as far as earplugs go). However, the device has some audio enhancement options that go beyond the basic equalizer, so you can probably compensate for 'bad' equipment.
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[mcwkm]

I am really leaning towards the Cowon S9 based on its great audio quality. I'm not a big fan of touch screens and I don't plan on watching many videos on it so the oled display isn't that important but it seems superior to the competition.

I couldn't find a Meizu M6 Miniplayer still being sold new. I'm sure its a nice device but Meizu hasn't been releasing their new products in the United States and I can't find older ones still for sale.

If you happen to have a Cowon S9. I'd love to hear what you think of it still. I'm trying to find a local shop that would have a display unit to take a look but it isn't looking to promising.

[ClickFanatic]

In Europe, a company called Dane-Elec took care of distributing the Miniplayer on behalf of Meizu. I don't know if Meizu has a partner like them in the US, but perhaps they do so you'll have to look for a different name.

On the other hand, I do think Meizu has stopped developing this product, because new firmware is no longer being released also.
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[mcwkm]

[ClickFanatic]

Well, then the Cowon seems like a good choice.
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[linuxdoctor]

Give MPlayer a try. It can play a whole myriad of formats both audio and video. There are versions for both Linux and Windows so you can use the same one on both systems.

Not only can it play files but it is capable of reading both audio and video CDs and DVDs, stream off the internet and dump the audio and video into a whole lot of different formats.

It is a very powerful tool and not just a player.

http://www.mplayerhq.hu
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If you think I'm 'politically' incorrect you have the wrong politics.
Big business is a disease we will need to cure before we will ever achieve real prosperity.

[mcwkm]

[linuxdoctor]

Oops. Sorry about that. I actually did read what you posted but for some reason my mind went completely bonkers.

When I came back and re-read the thread I asked myself, "What the hell did I do?" By then it was too late to delete the post.

My apologies once again.

MPlayer is a really good player, though.
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Misanthrope: someone who realizes that humans really are as stupid as they appear.
If you think I'm 'politically' incorrect you have the wrong politics.
Big business is a disease we will need to cure before we will ever achieve real prosperity.

[mcwkm]

[LP-SolidRaven]

If you want it to be fully linux compatible without any messing don't get an iPod. Really you shouldn't under any condition actually :p
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