Anybody have any love to share about a FLAC player?

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tdbajus
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Anybody have any love to share about a FLAC player?

Post by tdbajus » Thu Sep 15, 2011 3:05 pm

Wondering if there's a player out there that sounds better than an iPod. Anyone have anything they love?
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austingreen
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Post by austingreen » Fri Sep 16, 2011 10:18 am

Yes I do. Anything by COWON. They play all popular codecs, audio and video. But they're expensive, some of they're fancier stuff costs as much as an iPad, and some are kinda big with awkward joysticks, menues, etc., but... Audio quality is far, far above any other portable player, IMO. They have a nice EQ, each band has 3 selectable freqs and 3 different q's. I've had an X5 and a A3, their naming schemes make no sense and they have various models that seem to overlap in functions but they keep making new things, trying to improve their design. If they ever make a fully functioning pad that runs android I think i'd have to buy it. For watching videos on vacation these rule, they plug straight into a TV with provided cable w/ RCA-type analog outputs.

I'm a big fan of FLAC and 90% of my music archives are FLAC. Trying to find the best streaming or dropbox related app that can play them on my iPhone is another story.

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Post by tdbajus » Fri Sep 16, 2011 10:50 am

I looked at the Cowon stuff- you're right- their naming convention just confuses me. I've also heard some terrible things about them- In particular, I've heard that their android stuff is really bad.

I also know most people won't take time out of their day to post something nice. The certainly will take the time to trash someone online, though.

I'm not looking for a tablet, though. something like an old iPod, except better sounding.
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Post by austingreen » Fri Sep 16, 2011 12:41 pm

Yes you're right, there are lots of complaints of various aspect of certain models, but if you find a small model with enough memory for your needs, i think you might be happy. Yeah i'm staying away from their larger pads for awhile, didnt know they were already doing android.

I'm looking at this one, the C2:

http://anythingbutipod.com/2011/07/cowon-c2-review/

http://www.amazon.com/Cowon-C2-16BS-Vid ... 981&sr=1-7

affordable and should be enough memory with the microsd slot.

IMHO any interface drawbacks and/or slightly bizarre design issues are far outwieghed by their superiour audio quality. Sometimes older models have had battery issues but there's a great support group of fans that help replace and upgrade different models as people have really become attached to these devices. I'm one of 'em! And support from COWON has also been good. Find one in your budget with just the basic A/V functions you need, don't go big and fancy, and I think you'll be very happy.

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Post by tdbajus » Fri Sep 16, 2011 1:18 pm

Sweet! I'll check it out.

You know, I never understood the whole obsession with having huge amounts of memory. As long as I can carry more music than batteries...
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Post by ;ivlunsdystf » Fri Sep 16, 2011 2:30 pm

i have had a few different sansa players that can run rockbox (from http://www.rockbox.org/ )

installation is sometimes confusing at first, but the result is a fully configurable player that can handle any codec you throw at it. I just got another sansa clip+ at amazon for like 40 bucks, for when my other one runs out of battery life. big fan. way easier to manage files than the clunky-ass ipod/itunes system. etc.

although i once had rockbox working on an ipod mini circa 2006 and it was also great until the non-user-replaceable battery wore out.

hope this helps.

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Post by chucklesmcfarland » Sat Sep 17, 2011 12:53 pm

I've been a Rio Karma fan since they came out.

I also use the Phatbox audio system in my car.

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Post by Cyan421 » Sun Sep 18, 2011 4:20 pm

http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/retro-gaming/bd6f/

I got one of these a few years ago to play old video games on. It will play flac. It looks to be out of stock here but I'm sure you could find it on some unsafe Chinese site. Its also got a FM radio, but most androids have that too. This is just a bit longer than at ipod, about the same width.
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Post by C_R_J » Tue Nov 15, 2011 6:40 pm

isnt flac more of a archiving sorta format, as opposed to a file you actually play? i cant say ive ever actually played one of my flac files. i just make a mp3 from it.
time is money and im wasting both...

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Post by sears » Wed Nov 16, 2011 7:08 am

;ivlunsdystf wrote:i have had a few different sansa players that can run rockbox (from http://www.rockbox.org/ )

installation is sometimes confusing at first, but the result is a fully configurable player that can handle any codec you throw at it. I just got another sansa clip+ at amazon for like 40 bucks, for when my other one runs out of battery life. big fan. way easier to manage files than the clunky-ass ipod/itunes system. etc.

although i once had rockbox working on an ipod mini circa 2006 and it was also great until the non-user-replaceable battery wore out.

hope this helps.
Even without the rockbox, which I don't even know if it's compatible, my old Sansa Clip 8gig plays FLAC and has enough space for me to always have a new and interesting rotation.

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Post by KoffeeKommando » Wed Nov 16, 2011 10:22 am

I've got a Sansa Clip +. Plays FLAC. Has FM radio and voice recorder built in. Micro SD card slot.
http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Sansa-Cli ... B002MAPS6W

The headphone output is not as "powerful" as any of the Apple things. Found out running it into external speakers (in loud vehicle). Sounds great though...and I can just drop files on it. No itunes garbage to fool with.

Want to see it's guts?
http://anythingbutipod.com/2009/08/sand ... sassembly/

They rate it #2. Second only to Cowon.
I got mine at Radio Shack because I needed it for a road trip.
Only place to get it in my small town.
Buy and try, can always return it.

It can run Rockbox supposedly. But not with USB:
"AMSv2 issues (Fuzev2, Clipv2, Clip+):
USB support:
Clip+/Clipv2/Fuzev2: USB support is currently disabled because it fails randomly with current svn code. A patch has been made to correct this problem, but although it seems to work fine with the Linux, it can only connect in USB 1.1 mode when Windows is the host. Until its ready, use the OF's USB by booting the OF before connecting the USB cable.

Battery life: Battery life appears moderately better then the OF for MP3/WMA, and substantially better with Vorbis and FLAC. Further optimization may be possible. "

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Post by Bro Shark » Wed Nov 16, 2011 10:50 am

Interesting discussion. I have to say that ever since I was able to consolidate my music player and phone into a single device, that simple fact has trumped anything else like storage, file compatibility, etc. For just walking around it's just so cool to have music on my phone.

That said, I think all this lossy compression junk is on the verge of going away forever. So it will be cool one day to have phones/devices that are playing uncompressed audio, and hopefully have decent headphone amps built in, etc. That'd really be cool for a tech/nerd/lazy guy such as myself.

Sorry for the off topic post, I'm just kinda fascinated by all this stuff.

Another thing that's cool, is they're starting to make car stereos that pull raw data out of Apple devices, and do more proper D/A conversion inside the stereo. So you bypass the crappy Apple DAC. Pretty neat if you like to have lots of music in the car.

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Post by rwc » Sat Jan 14, 2012 3:38 pm

I use my android phone.

I stopped using cowon products a long time ago. I liked the A2, and O2. I could watch TV on a 16:9 device, but I can do that on my phone now. The whole idea behind having a separate media player was it was better at it, but browsing around a resistive touchscreen or a joystick is awful compared to what I have on an android phone.
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Post by blungo2 » Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:46 pm

Only glanced at this thread, so i'm not sure if this is helpful. I recently downloaded decibel ( i think it handles flac files) sounds better than i tunes.

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Post by nobody, really » Wed Feb 08, 2012 8:25 pm

I went all ocd a while back with figuring out my digital music player. I couldn't be happier with my 16gb cowon iaudio 7. it's small, sounds very good, the battery lasts 50 freaking hours, it records, charges via usb. plays flac and ogg vorbis. i use it in the car, and on the job (doing construction, it's also tough). it's also cheap.
I also finally discovered music bee, which is my software music player/organizer. By far, this is the best music player out there. i tried them all. it has all kinds of organizing tools, tagging tools, rips cds with accurateRip, plays flac, and it doesn't look like it was made for windows 95. oh and it's free.

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