Portable digital music player for £500 or less

bingefeller

As my iPod is on it's last legs I'm after a new non-Apple digital music player for £500 or less.  

Suggestions please

Sporky

Any Android phone with a microSD card? I use my old Moto G4 as a Spotify player. 

TTony

Poor pod


I bought one of these recently, although it's a fair bit under your budget.  
https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/walkman/nw-a40-series

BT is handy.  A 256Gb card for music.  Supports hi-def.

With £500, this site is maybe a good place to start - just in case you're not already aware of it ...

bingefeller

Sporky said:

Any Android phone with a microSD card? I use my old Moto G4 as a Spotify player. 

Some other people suggested this to me in a chatroom when I asked the same question.  What is the battery life like when you use your Moto G4 solely as a Spotify player?  

Sporky

I don't know, but I can check. 

scrumhalf

TTony said:

With £500, this site is maybe a good place to start - just in case you're not already aware of it ...

They have the Cowon M2 for a very decent price. I have its predecessor, the D20. I was able to get a 64GB card to work which, with the on-board 32GB, is a decent size.

The Cowon wins on two fronts. Battery life is quoted is not an exaggeration, you will not have to charge it on a regular basis. But the clincher is the sound quality, it is simply brilliant. I used to buy Creative players because they sounded so much better than anything Apple produced. The Cowon is vastly superior to any Creative player I had.

The Cowon software isn't the best, it takes a while to get used to.

But the sound quality just trumps everything.

duotone

https://www.whathifi.com/products/portable

Worth a look & to read some reviews.  It might throw up a few brands/models you haven’t already heard of.

Zoolooter

This,  or the Astell & Kern AK70 mk2 which they are selling at a clearance price of £475

https://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/shop/MP3_Players.1/FiiO.406/FIIOX5III/FiiO_X5_3rd_Gen__X5iii__Hi-Res_Player_-_Black.15039.html

blobb

AK Jr for ~£250

The DAC in it is better than my REGA CD player.

bingefeller

TTony said:

Poor pod


I bought one of these recently, although it's a fair bit under your budget.  
https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/walkman/nw-a40-series

BT is handy.  A 256Gb card for music.  Supports hi-def.

With £500, this site is maybe a good place to start - just in case you're not already aware of it ...

Surprised to see that Sony are still carrying on the old "Walkman" name, I have visions of the old chunky cassette players! Some of these looks really nice and it's good to see they play all the high def formats such as FLAC and WAV. I will read up a few reviews and see. Anything below budget is good.

Sporky said:

I don't know, but I can check. 

Yes please if you don't mind. Just a rough estimate.

scrumhalf said:

TTony said:

With £500, this site is maybe a good place to start - just in case you're not already aware of it ...

They have the Cowon M2 for a very decent price. I have its predecessor, the D20. I was able to get a 64GB card to work which, with the on-board 32GB, is a decent size.

The Cowon wins on two fronts. Battery life is quoted is not an exaggeration, you will not have to charge it on a regular basis. But the clincher is the sound quality, it is simply brilliant. I used to buy Creative players because they sounded so much better than anything Apple produced. The Cowon is vastly superior to any Creative player I had.

The Cowon software isn't the best, it takes a while to get used to.

But the sound quality just trumps everything.

It's hard to find info if the Cowon software is Mac friendly or not. A lot of older reports online suggest it's not - do you have any experiences?

duotone said:

https://www.whathifi.com/products/portable

Worth a look & to read some reviews.  It might throw up a few brands/models you haven’t already heard of.

Cheers for the link..

Zoolooter said:

This,  or the Astell & Kern AK70 mk2 which they are selling at a clearance price of £475

https://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/shop/MP3_Players.1/FiiO.406/FIIOX5III/FiiO_X5_3rd_Gen__X5iii__Hi-Res_Player_-_Black.15039.html

Never heard of that brand either, that seems to be a bargain price.

blobb said:

AK Jr for ~£250

The DAC in it is better than my REGA CD player.

Hmmm., another good one to consider - thanks!

Zoolooter

All depends on what you are going to use it for: great audio in the home, car, or on the train, or do you want it for the gym/running, etc. Some are big'ish and chunky, others slim and small like an iPod. There is also not much point in sending £200 plus if you're not playing lossless audio files. 

bingefeller

Zoolooter said:

All depends on what you are going to use it for: great audio in the home, car, or on the train, or do you want it for the gym/running, etc. Some are big'ish and chunky, others slim and small like an iPod. There is also not much point in sending £200 plus if you're not playing lossless audio files. 

Just for when I’m walking and also on the train.  I have lots of lossless Audio files and hundreds of bootlegs in flac so would like to keep them. 

Zoolooter

The new Fiio M9 at £229 with dual dac looks great value in a neat package.

scrumhalf

bingefeller said:

scrumhalf said:

TTony said:

With £500, this site is maybe a good place to start - just in case you're not already aware of it ...

They have the Cowon M2 for a very decent price. I have its predecessor, the D20. I was able to get a 64GB card to work which, with the on-board 32GB, is a decent size.

The Cowon wins on two fronts. Battery life is quoted is not an exaggeration, you will not have to charge it on a regular basis. But the clincher is the sound quality, it is simply brilliant. I used to buy Creative players because they sounded so much better than anything Apple produced. The Cowon is vastly superior to any Creative player I had.

The Cowon software isn't the best, it takes a while to get used to.

But the sound quality just trumps everything.

It's hard to find info if the Cowon software is Mac friendly or not. A lot of older reports online suggest it's not - do you have any experiences?

If you mean transferring files then, as a PC user, I just use Wndows Explorer as I would with pretty much any external deivce. Not being a Mac user I can't advise on how this would work with a Mac, but I would presume that the Mac has the same sort of bog-standard file transfer software.

spark240

Good thread as I’ve been looking myself recently....I landed at the AK 70 mk2 to r similar...but not purchased yet.

how do I get lossless files anyhow ?

blobb

spark240 said:

Good thread as I’ve been looking myself recently....I landed at the AK 70 mk2 to r similar...but not purchased yet.

how do I get lossless files anyhow ?

RIP your cd's as FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec)

blobb

bingefeller said:

blobb said:

AK Jr for ~£250

The DAC in it is better than my REGA CD player.

Hmmm., another good one to consider - thanks!

the one thing I would say about the AK Jr is that it is a beautiful thing to hold. Sharp edges but the fitted cases are superb and round off those edges nicely.

Another good feature, which probably applies to most high end players, is that you can connect USB and it will stream audio out via it's in built DAC. So you can hook it up to your hi-fi if you want, and get the benefit of the DAC.

Zoolooter

spark240 said:

Good thread as I’ve been looking myself recently....I landed at the AK 70 mk2 to r similar...but not purchased yet.

how do I get lossless files anyhow ?

Various websites similar to iTunes, do a search for Flac or lossless music downloads.

Freebird

Zoolooter said:
There is also not much point in spending £200 plus if you're not playing lossless audio files. 

Or if you don't have decent earphones.

Freebird

bingefeller said:
Just for when I’m walking and also on the train.  I have lots of lossless Audio files and hundreds of bootlegs in flac so would like to keep them. 

You can also convert these to MP3 320kbs, but most players support Flac nowadays. I struggle to hear the difference on a desktop system using Sennheiser HD600 headphones. I love HiFi audio products, but there is a lot of voodoo involved, and eventually when you have spent a lot of money, you will reach the point where you get to hear that a lot of music has been recorded and mastered very badly  

My portable setup is a little Flac capable SanDisk Clip MP3 player, with some (£300) Westone triple-driver IEM's. I decided to spend my money on the front end and it does the job well enough, but I am reading this thread with interest!

bingefeller

spark240 said:

Good thread as I’ve been looking myself recently....I landed at the AK 70 mk2 to r similar...but not purchased yet.

how do I get lossless files anyhow ?

Are you Windows or Mac?  I recommend XLD for Mac https://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html

scrumhalf said:

bingefeller said:

scrumhalf said:

TTony said:

With £500, this site is maybe a good place to start - just in case you're not already aware of it ...

They have the Cowon M2 for a very decent price. I have its predecessor, the D20. I was able to get a 64GB card to work which, with the on-board 32GB, is a decent size.

The Cowon wins on two fronts. Battery life is quoted is not an exaggeration, you will not have to charge it on a regular basis. But the clincher is the sound quality, it is simply brilliant. I used to buy Creative players because they sounded so much better than anything Apple produced. The Cowon is vastly superior to any Creative player I had.

The Cowon software isn't the best, it takes a while to get used to.

But the sound quality just trumps everything.

It's hard to find info if the Cowon software is Mac friendly or not. A lot of older reports online suggest it's not - do you have any experiences?

If you mean transferring files then, as a PC user, I just use Wndows Explorer as I would with pretty much any external deivce. Not being a Mac user I can't advise on how this would work with a Mac, but I would presume that the Mac has the same sort of bog-standard file transfer software.

Ok it should just be a case of drag and drop then thanks.