Best sound quality MP3 player...

[aZn_plyR]

Hey guys, which mp3 player.. hard drive based would you guys recommend for me, under 200 bucks.. that has the best sound quality. and it should be able to drive a SONY V6 headphones too.. decently..

I am thinking one of those from creative... but how are the ipods... not the nanos though, too little size and memory. Thanks.

[skudmunky]

Zen Micro sounds very nice, I don't know about the ipod mini, but I hear iAudio products sound nice.

[Asian Dub Foundation]

imo creative has the best sound

[aZn_plyR]

ok good 2 votes for creative.. any more?

[Parallelogram_Monkey]

The Creative Zen Micro has Great Sound Quality :) but...
I once you start gettin about 400+ songs on it it SLOWS down horriably. It's really hard to go through music when it takes 10-20 sec just to switch songs. Maybe mine just has a problem, but it sucks!

[br0k3nman]

You're more limited by your Sony V6s, not any big name decent audio player (iRiver, iPod, creative.

Changing headphones would yield much better quality.

[aZn_plyR]

actually.. I didn't buy the sony v6's yet.... headphones= under 100 player= under 200

I thought the v6's were the best value.. and I have seen a LOT of reviews saying they are very very good for thier price... otherwise you guys can suggest something else.. HD280? :)

[xonik]

It doesn't really matter which player you select, if you're just going to play MP3s from them.

[NulloModo]

It doesn't really matter which player you select, if you're just going to play MP3s from them.

Not true, some have much better output stages than others. The iAudio also supports non-lossy standards, plus video, and it is small, sexy looking, and has great battery life in the L model. I am going to buy one soon...

[aZn_plyR]

which model are u getting... looks nice to me and if it is as good as you say :P and it is cheaper than the others too..

[xonik]

Not true, some have much better output stages than others.Yes, but how does that negate garbage in = garbage out?The iAudio also supports non-lossy standards,So does the iPod, Rio Karma, etc. etc.

[UnknownSouljer]

Yes, but how does that negate garbage in = garbage out?

Saying that makes this thread pointless though. You might as well not quoted him and told the op to buy any audio player he wants because the sound quality on all of them won't matter.

I vote for the iaudio X5 personally, but that's just me. Sure there are other players that support more formats, but video playing, and flac just do it for me.

[NulloModo]

Yes, but how does that negate garbage in = garbage out?So does the iPod, Rio Karma, etc. etc.

I don't consider MP3 to be garbage personally, well encoded MP3s can sound just as good as CDs, depending on the music, the headphones, etc.

[skudmunky]

The Creative Zen Micro has Great Sound Quality :) but...
I once you start gettin about 400+ songs on it it SLOWS down horriably. It's really hard to go through music when it takes 10-20 sec just to switch songs. Maybe mine just has a problem, but it sucks!

its just you, i got 4.5 gis of music on mine and its still as fast as ever. weird. My freind doesnt have any troublewith slow loading on his either.

[aZn_plyR]

Anyways you guys, I have decided.. I am going with creative... looks better... better size and I have had a very good experience with creative and my older mp3 player.. one BIG reason I dont want to get an ipod is b/c everyone at my school has one.. veyr annoying lol

[skudmunky]

Anyways you guys, I have decided.. I am going with creative... looks better... better size and I have had a very good experience with creative and my older mp3 player.. one BIG reason I dont want to get an ipod is b/c everyone at my school has one.. veyr annoying lol

If you wait you could get a zen micro photo, they should be arriving soon, and with 8 gb microdrives. its on creative.com but not yet on us.creative.com...

[JhonkaBrohamski]

another vote for creative

i have a 40 gig zen touch, and i absolutely love the quality, plus it came with halfway decent senny's

[aZn_plyR]

If you wait you could get a zen micro photo, they should be arriving soon, and with 8 gb microdrives. its on creative.com but not yet on us.creative.com...

4 under 200? :P

[skudmunky]

4 under 200? :P

Ah yes, good point.

Also something that looks nice, for the ZM.
http://creative.com/products/product.asp?category=4&subcategory=29&product=11784
dock thingy...

[Artluo100]

I never liked sony, I've had both their mini-disc players and their mp3. I cannot tell you how much time it took me to just convert the mp3s to like atrac-3. I do not recommend any sony mp3 devices. Also thanks guys, I've been looking at the iaudio mp3 players. I think I'm going to go with the X5L. I'm going to finally ditch my ipod. X5L has 35 hours compared to my ipod which has like less than 8 hours.

[FaRKle0079]

There's always the iRiver H10 (5gb and 6gb), and iAudio M3 (20gb). Oh yea and the Rio Karmas (20gb) are under $200 now too.

[Parallelogram_Monkey]

its just you, i got 4.5 gis of music on mine and its still as fast as ever. weird. My freind doesnt have any troublewith slow loading on his either.

Really! Great, that means i'm gonna RMA it Bah.

[stunna]

i thought hte sony mdr v6 were suppose to be good headphones

[br0k3nman]

I never liked sony, I've had both their mini-disc players and their mp3. I cannot tell you how much time it took me to just convert the mp3s to like atrac-3. I do not recommend any sony mp3 devices. Also thanks guys, I've been looking at the iaudio mp3 players. I think I'm going to go with the X5L. I'm going to finally ditch my ipod. X5L has 35 hours compared to my ipod which has like less than 8 hours.

Actually, the Sony Vaio VGF-AP1L 40 gig mp3 player supports MP3s now. There was a firmware release.

The sound quality is great and it has excellent battery life (about 20 hours). You can get one for about 200 with 40gb.

[_Korruption_]

My iRiver H10 5GB + Sennheiser HD212 Pros is a very good combination. Easily driven (bass++), closed headphones with removable cables.

http://www.thequietrevolution.ca/blog/images/sennheiser/IMG_3851.JPG

[Rash]

i like the sonys with their atrac, 64kbit at cd sound quality, amazing battery life, the sound is a lot richer than my partners ipods that she has had. sonicstage is getting alot better but still no itunes beater. check the new aw series mp3 players from sony a 6gb one and a 20 gb one, getting a black 20 gig one for christmas to finally replace my sony nwhd1

[darkninja67]

The best sounding HD DAP out there right now is the iAudio X5. I had a Karma and this unit sounds better IMO. Creative? They are not worth mentioning until they support Ogg and FLAC. The excellent build quality and battery life are just bonuses to me for the X5. It is that good.

[aZn_plyR]

thanks, got my new headphones, now I am definetely looking for the "right" player. Will look into it.

[8steve8]

all current non-shuffle ipods support playing apple's lossless format.
i believe they will also play uncompressed pcm.



anyway i think all i have to add is these replies are pointless

saying u have player xxx and it sounds great etc etc, doesnt answer the question
he needs someone who has empirical evidence that shows one player to be better than the others in audio quality.... this is likely limited by the quality of the D/A/amp in the players.

[8steve8]

although it is worthy of note, that sony's atrac yeilds MUCH better sound quality per MB than mp3. especially the newest versions of atrac.
although u still might be limited by dac quality

but this maybe very inconvenient or irrelovant if u already have a large mp3 collection.

[Rash]

although it is worthy of note, that sony's atrac yeilds MUCH better sound quality per MB than mp3. especially the newest versions of atrac.
although u still might be limited by dac quality

but this maybe very inconvenient or irrelovant if u already have a large mp3 collection.

yer it took almost 10 hours to convert my existing mp3s to atrac3plus, not looking back though, more hard drive space, excellent quality, good if you plan on using them on the psp or future ps3 for music streaming. your just stuck with sonicstage which is very good, but does not work on a mac yet, i just wish connect had a wider variety of songs than itunes to buy....