High Quality Portable Music Player??

[Audity]

I can't do the iPod/cheap op-amp/compressed files thing any longer. I'm searching for a dedicated portable music player that will let me store uncompressed WAV files for both casual and critical listening.
Of course there are plenty of portable players that fit this bill, but for the life of me, I can't find a single spec or professionaly written review for any of them. It's a little bit saddening how little consumers are concerned with the quality of audio that they are getting.
But anyways, I'm hoping you guys may have some suggestions for a reasonably priced ($300-400 perhaps) unit that has good quality amps and high quality, uncolored sound. Thanks!!

[yotonic]

I'm looking for something like this too. Im not interested in a software solution. I'd like a piece of hardware.

[TRJanuary]

MEE TOO

I am still using a portable minidisc player for all my custom playlists. YOu may laugh, but it is very convenient and ATRAC compression is far nicer sounding than MP3. And the later ones DO allow full .wav storage and playback.

It records on the fly, too.

[Bullseye]

Sounds like a manufacturers opportunity. The way to compete with itunes may well be in audio quality....Hmmmm

[Happy Musicfan]

Me quintuple too.

All the ones I see have a visual display. It'd be nice to have a *tiny*, compact, portable .wav player with just a minimal LED song index display.

I want to be able to load in the entirely unconverted 24-bit .wav file I work with in my DAW to listen to..... for *pleasure*.



And no, I don't go near ear buds. I like those huge, old school headphones which make you look 'nerdy'.

[Lance Lawson]

A Walkman and cassette tape.

[Happy Musicfan]

Cassettes ? Been there, done that, enjoyed it at the time, but was ultimately frustrated by the imperfections.

I want something more stable (regarding pitch), far less hissy and entirely transparent. I'll *never* fast forward or rewind another cassette tape, ever again.

[gnuyork]

I use a Sansa Clip - tiny little thing I got at costco for $30. I A/B ed it with my wife's iPod nano for a few years back and the Sansa sounded better - test file was an MP3 because the Sansa can't do aiff or ac4. (Can't remember if it can do wav...)

...But it does do FLAC which is my portable music file choice.

Also it can take micro SD cards - so you can have multiple cards loaded with different files etc....

Now are there others devices out there that are better - probably. I was originally going to get a SONY X series player, then I found this Sansa for $30 and figured I'd give it a shot. So far it's good enough - I still might a SONY in the future.

Also I have read good things about the Cowan (S9?)

[Audity]

Hmmmm... check out this one. It's got uber-detailed specs and the third party reviews for it are all pretty good, seems legit I'm a fan of the price too!

QA350--SD Card WAV High Fidelity Music Player

and the V2

QA350 MOD V2 WAV Player

[Happy Musicfan]

Audity ? Grrrrrrrrr. That's the problem and why they aren't taking off. They don't look sleek, they look clumsy, bulky and are way too expensive. The website font and layout looks horrible.


This 5$ item is what they are competing with. 320kbps MP3's loaded in do *not* sound bad if the mixing and mastering of the file is tastefully, dynamically and musically done.




Combined with these 15$ Sennheiser HD201 headphones, the sound is really friggen good for low-enders. Seriously !




Now combine the 2 : you've spent $20 and have tremendous bang for the buck.


Still, I want a 24-bit .wav player though, lol.

[Audity]

Haha their website was a little "wtf", and the thing is pretty ugly... But they look like they put a lot of effort into selecting parts and components.
If it's really as stellar as some reviewers say, I'd put $200 down for an ugly box that gives me good results.
Again, I'm saying "IF" ...I have never actually seen or used one.

[Happy Musicfan]

Don't get me wrong, I want dedicated 24-bit .wav file players to overtake MP3 players and eventually wipe MP3's off the map.

But there's a right way to do that and there's a wrong way to do that.

[Audity]

Here ya go, here's a 192kHz/24bit player that is certainly "stylin"

I don't even see a link to US dealers, but I'm sure it's a pretty penny lol

Colorfly | Colorfly Pocket HiFi | 192KHz/24Bit

...anyways, I'm still hoping that SOMEONE out there makes a media player with a decent, uncolored amp in it. I even was looking at the Sansa players at lunch today, but they felt a little too "consumer-ey." So without any type of specs, I'm hesitant to trust their accuracy.