Portable digital music player for £500 or less

Matt_McG

The Sandisk Clip mentioned by @Freebird is a surprisingly capable and decent sounding player. Screen is small so not good for the car, but for in the pocket audio on the go, it's great. 

See:  http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/02/sansa-clip-measured.html

Rocker

Oddly enough, there are times when a bit of compression helps: in a noisy environment or in a car for example. But to hear the recording properly, lossless, no compression is the answer

Grumpyrocker

Astell & Kern are iRiver, it's their made up posh-sounding name for their expensive kit. 

exocet

Rocker said:

Oddly enough, there are times when a bit of compression helps: in a noisy environment or in a car for example. But to hear the recording properly, lossless, no compression is the answer

Different compression at play there.

1. Audio compression is a reduction in dynamic range. Guitar compressors do this as do Broadcasters who run audio through Multi-band compressors to make the sound "louder" or more intelligible in noisy environments.

2. Data compression - using coding techniques to reduce the number of bits required to represent something else such as audio. MP3 is one example of this.

Johnnyseven

I've been looking into these since I had an issue with my iPod recently. Re sd cards though, i'd need one with high capacity but not all seem to be created equal. Can anyone recommend a brand/type that would be reliable to store around 200 gb?

TTony

Johnnyseven said:

Can anyone recommend a brand/type that would be reliable to store around 200 gb?

Sandisk.

And from a reputable seller - NOT eBay or Amazon marketplace!

They’re obviously not your primary storage ...

Johnnyseven

Thanks @TTony ;

DesVegas

How much is Neil Young's Pono?

Zoolooter

TTony said:

Johnnyseven said:

Can anyone recommend a brand/type that would be reliable to store around 200 gb?

Sandisk.

And from a reputable seller - NOT eBay or Amazon marketplace!

They’re obviously not your primary storage ...

Mymemory.com is good value for cards and what not. 

duotone

DesVegas said:

How much is Neil Young's Pono?

@DesVegas ;

http://www.noise11.com/news/r-i-p-pono-neil-young-kills-off-his-digital-player-20170423

shuikit

If it's the drive that's going on your ipod, then I've swapped the drive for SD cards using adaptors on my 5th Gen.  It's still going strong, though it doesn't get used much.  It's now a bigger capacity than before, lighter and boots up faster.

DesVegas

duotone said:

DesVegas said:

How much is Neil Young's Pono?

@DesVegas ;

http://www.noise11.com/news/r-i-p-pono-neil-young-kills-off-his-digital-player-20170423

Ah well, not that then!

Heartfeltdawn

Freebird said:

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!

Freebird and I will never agree on Trump but we agree on digital players

When it comes to portable digital stuff, I've never liked phones. The Sandisk Clip + was amazing but sadly it broke after several years. I've had a Clip Jam for 3 years and it's great. 8GB onboard storage isn't much but I don't want every album ever on there and you can upgrade with a microSD card. I've got mine wrapped in a silicon case for a bit more protection. Soundwise it isn't quite as good as the Clip+ was but it's better than certain Apple products I remember testing in the past. Battery life: 18 hours of playtime is fine for me. 

Audio out from this into my Denon power amp and monitors is cracking. 

I wouldn't spend £500 on a player if I didn't have speakers or phones on the same level. 

danishbacon

I've had the ak jr and now have the ak70 mki. I would not go back to jr.

bingefeller

shuikit said:

If it's the drive that's going on your ipod, then I've swapped the drive for SD cards using adaptors on my 5th Gen.  It's still going strong, though it doesn't get used much.  It's now a bigger capacity than before, lighter and boots up faster.

It's the battery sadly.  For example I left the house this morning and it was 100% full, I got into work an hour later and it was 52% - that's just listening to music with the iPod left in my pocket.  No bluetooth or wifi on .

Heartfeltdawn said:

Freebird said:

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!

Freebird and I will never agree on Trump but we agree on digital players

When it comes to portable digital stuff, I've never liked phones. The Sandisk Clip + was amazing but sadly it broke after several years. I've had a Clip Jam for 3 years and it's great. 8GB onboard storage isn't much but I don't want every album ever on there and you can upgrade with a microSD card. I've got mine wrapped in a silicon case for a bit more protection. Soundwise it isn't quite as good as the Clip+ was but it's better than certain Apple products I remember testing in the past. Battery life: 18 hours of playtime is fine for me. 

Audio out from this into my Denon power amp and monitors is cracking. 

I wouldn't spend £500 on a player if I didn't have speakers or phones on the same level. 

From reading up on players I see that the £500 level was quite high as there seems to be a lot of good quality stuff on the market for much less.

danishbacon said:

I've had the ak jr and now have the ak70 mki. I would not go back to jr.

Can I ask what you like about the AK70 mki?  

danishbacon

bingefeller said:

shuikit said:

If it's the drive that's going on your ipod, then I've swapped the drive for SD cards using adaptors on my 5th Gen.  It's still going strong, though it doesn't get used much.  It's now a bigger capacity than before, lighter and boots up faster.

It's the battery sadly.  For example I left the house this morning and it was 100% full, I got into work an hour later and it was 52% - that's just listening to music with the iPod left in my pocket.  No bluetooth or wifi on .

Heartfeltdawn said:

Freebird said:

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!

Freebird and I will never agree on Trump but we agree on digital players

When it comes to portable digital stuff, I've never liked phones. The Sandisk Clip + was amazing but sadly it broke after several years. I've had a Clip Jam for 3 years and it's great. 8GB onboard storage isn't much but I don't want every album ever on there and you can upgrade with a microSD card. I've got mine wrapped in a silicon case for a bit more protection. Soundwise it isn't quite as good as the Clip+ was but it's better than certain Apple products I remember testing in the past. Battery life: 18 hours of playtime is fine for me. 

Audio out from this into my Denon power amp and monitors is cracking. 

I wouldn't spend £500 on a player if I didn't have speakers or phones on the same level. 

From reading up on players I see that the £500 level was quite high as there seems to be a lot of good quality stuff on the market for much less.

danishbacon said:

I've had the ak jr and now have the ak70 mki. I would not go back to jr.

Can I ask what you like about the AK70 mki?  

I won't delve into sound quality as I think at this level you are talking about very marginal variations. It's reproduces high quality files with excellent sound stage and fidelity. Whether it is 'better' than another £500 player Its a subjective thing.

Its easy to use with my jriver library, sounds great with my headphones (se535), well made and it looks good.

https://i.postimg.cc/Gpk9mZ1V/IMG-20181012-182731.jpg

bingefeller

danishbacon said:

bingefeller said:

shuikit said:

If it's the drive that's going on your ipod, then I've swapped the drive for SD cards using adaptors on my 5th Gen.  It's still going strong, though it doesn't get used much.  It's now a bigger capacity than before, lighter and boots up faster.

It's the battery sadly.  For example I left the house this morning and it was 100% full, I got into work an hour later and it was 52% - that's just listening to music with the iPod left in my pocket.  No bluetooth or wifi on .

Heartfeltdawn said:

Freebird said:

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!

Freebird and I will never agree on Trump but we agree on digital players

When it comes to portable digital stuff, I've never liked phones. The Sandisk Clip + was amazing but sadly it broke after several years. I've had a Clip Jam for 3 years and it's great. 8GB onboard storage isn't much but I don't want every album ever on there and you can upgrade with a microSD card. I've got mine wrapped in a silicon case for a bit more protection. Soundwise it isn't quite as good as the Clip+ was but it's better than certain Apple products I remember testing in the past. Battery life: 18 hours of playtime is fine for me. 

Audio out from this into my Denon power amp and monitors is cracking. 

I wouldn't spend £500 on a player if I didn't have speakers or phones on the same level. 

From reading up on players I see that the £500 level was quite high as there seems to be a lot of good quality stuff on the market for much less.

danishbacon said:

I've had the ak jr and now have the ak70 mki. I would not go back to jr.

Can I ask what you like about the AK70 mki?  

I won't delve into sound quality as I think at this level you are talking about very marginal variations. It's reproduces high quality files with excellent sound stage and fidelity. Whether it is 'better' than another £500 player Its a subjective thing.

Its easy to use with my jriver library, sounds great with my headphones (se535), well made and it looks good.

https://i.postimg.cc/Gpk9mZ1V/IMG-20181012-182731.jpg

That looks tiny! 

Grumpyrocker

Sansa Clip+ with Rockbox installed and a decent sized MicroSD. Cheap as chips but with excellent sound quality. 

Fretwired

bingefeller said:

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

What's wrong with it? You can buy new hard drives, batteries and so forth quite in expensively. I have a second generation iPod still going strong.

bingefeller

Grumpyrocker said:

Sansa Clip+ with Rockbox installed and a decent sized MicroSD. Cheap as chips but with excellent sound quality. 

Is this the one you mean?

Fretwired said:

bingefeller said:

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

What's wrong with it? You can buy new hard drives, batteries and so forth quite in expensively. I have a second generation iPod still going strong.

the battery is done on it.  Mine is a 4th Generation iPod touch.