Looking for a new music player, recommendations?

[Ruzz]

I'm no audiophile. I have used the iphone music player for years out of love for its easy to use interface. What is a good mp3 player to get now, that is of better sound quality than the iPod?

Requirements
- Need 32gb at least
- Better sound than ipod?
- Preferably small, intend to use it a lot in the gym and for exercising
- Easy to make playlists (i use a lot of them)

Miscellanous info
- I don't play FLAC files, just 320kpbs .mp3
- I use a Westone4 without an amp
- Listen to mostly trance, hiphop

 

[runswithscisors]

What are you using for ear buds? I'd ubgrade the buds before the player. I have these for my laptop and like them.

Full Metal Jacket Earbuds by Skullcandy

If you want to go a step up, you could go for these.

Klipsch Reference S4 Headphones

Or these if you want to go crazy

 

[Ruzz]

I use a westone 4... i'm looking for recommendations on mp3 players though?

 

[afterlife2]

Cowon X7 Fantastic Player: http://www.amazon.com/COWON-160-MP3-Player-Black/dp/B0048BPI7C/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1335577070&sr=1-1

or

http://www.amazon.com/Cowon-iAUDIO-Portable-Media-Players/dp/B005XQ9WHI/ref=sr_1_15?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1335577294&sr=1-15

Some good earbuds:
Amazon.com: Klipsch Image X10 Noise-Isolating Earphone: Electronics

With Sony Tip the X10 sound awesome: Amazon.com: Sony EPEX10A/BLK Hybrid Replacement Earbuds (Black): Electronics

These are no joke and cheap too. I too did not believe all the fuss till I bought them. I bought 2 pairs: For only $6.06 each when QTY 50+ purchased - Enhanced Bass Hi-Fi Noise Isolating Earphones | EarPhones

 

[bikdav]

I'd stick to that iPhone and find some better headphones. The audio sections in the iPhone, iPod, and iPad put some full blown audio gear to shame. I own an iPod and it is a knockout.

 

[afterlife2]

The audio sections in the iPhone, iPod, and iPad put some full blown audio gear to shame. I own an iPod and it is a knockout.

You are kidding right?

 

[Ruzz]

I'd stick to that iPhone and find some better headphones. The audio sections in the iPhone, iPod, and iPad put some full blown audio gear to shame. I own an iPod and it is a knockout.

you don't think the westone 4 is good enough?

 

[Alex2507]

This thread has some posts on the topic of players.

 

[MinusTheBear]

I'm no audiophile. I have used the iphone music player for years out of love for its easy to use interface. What is a good mp3 player to get now, that is of better sound quality than the iPod?

Requirements
- Need 32gb at least
- Better sound than ipod?
- Preferably small, intend to use it a lot in the gym and for exercising
- Easy to make playlists (i use a lot of them)

Miscellanous info
- I don't play FLAC files, just 320kpbs .mp3
- I use a Westone4 without an amp
- Listen to mostly trance, hiphop

The SanDisk Sansa Clip+ and Sansa Clip Zip is THE "reference" portable music player in terms of sound quality regardless of price which all players are judged on. They are amongst the least expensive, smallest in terms of size and has a clip which you can attach to your person for exercise, comes with a MicroSD slot for max storage > 32GB.

NwAvGuy: Sansa Clip+ Measured

I also like Cowon PMP's. My older D2+ has an amazing battery life which no other players beside other Cowons can match.

 

[zhimbo]

you don't think the westone 4 is good enough?

Yeah, people keep missing that.

HEY! EVERYBODY! RUZZ KEEPS TELLING YOU, INCLUDING IN THE OPENING POST, THAT HE HAS HEADPHONES THAT COST ABOUT $450 WHEN THEY FIRST CAME OUT! HE ISN'T USIING CHEAP EARBUDS!

 

[TLS Guy]

I'm no audiophile. I have used the iphone music player for years out of love for its easy to use interface. What is a good mp3 player to get now, that is of better sound quality than the iPod?

Requirements
- Need 32gb at least
- Better sound than ipod?
- Preferably small, intend to use it a lot in the gym and for exercising
- Easy to make playlists (i use a lot of them)

Miscellanous info
- I don't play FLAC files, just 320kpbs .mp3
- I use a Westone4 without an amp
- Listen to mostly trance, hiphop

I think your problem is the mp3 codec. Mp3 is a very poor sounding codec. The more you scratch the surface the worse it looks. Its easily identifiable at its highest streaming rate. Their are serious bass timing issues for one, as well as it stripping essential data, leaving a bland uninvolving sound.

May be you should try FLAC. FLAC is loss less for one. I don't regard MP3 as being able to deliver a program with any degree of fidelity. I have good company the BBC for one and many others.

There are a lot better sounding lossy codecs, AC3 for one.

 

[agarwalro]

The SanDisk Sansa Clip+ and Sansa Clip Zip is THE "reference" portable music player in terms of sound quality regardless of price which all players are judged on. They are amongst the least expensive, smallest in terms of size and has a clip which you can attach to your person for exercise, comes with a MicroSD slot for max storage > 32GB.

+1 this.

Also, you can throw Rockbox on it and get a host of features that don't come out of box (like gapless playback).

 

[Grador]

I think your problem is the mp3 codec. Mp3 is a very poor sounding codec. The more you scratch the surface the worse it looks. Its easily identifiable at its highest streaming rate. Their are serious bass timing issues for one, as well as it stripping essential data, leaving a bland uninvolving sound.

May be you should try FLAC. FLAC is loss less for one. I don't regard MP3 as being able to deliver a program with any degree of fidelity. I have good company the BBC for one and many others.

There are a lot better sounding lossy codecs, AC3 for one.

This is obviously ideal, but some of us would like to carry around more than 32 gig of FLAC files, and not a hard drive based player. Going AC3 or the like might be a nice stopgap measure, but if he's already got an iDevice, keeping a separate file library for another portable is a pain.

Also out of my own curiosity, you have any links to read up on these supposed horrid transgressions of mp3? This gets throw out a lot, along with it's corollary that mp3's are transparent beyond ~192 kbps. I'd like to read up on this a little bit.

 

[Ruzz]

I have 18gb of music alone... to convert them all to flac would take a mad amount of time and too much space...

Yeah, people keep missing that.

HEY! EVERYBODY! RUZZ KEEPS TELLING YOU, INCLUDING IN THE OPENING POST, THAT HE HAS HEADPHONES THAT COST ABOUT $450 WHEN THEY FIRST CAME OUT! HE ISN'T USIING CHEAP EARBUDS!

I find the w4 to be damn near to perfection hence my confusion when other users are asking me to get better iems. why would I brag of it, on an audiophile forum?

 

[avnetguy]

Also out of my own curiosity, you have any links to read up on these supposed horrid transgressions of mp3? This gets throw out a lot, along with it's corollary that mp3's are transparent beyond ~192 kbps. I'd like to read up on this a little bit.

You're probably best to test this one yourself since it's rather easy to do, just pick a few favorite songs, convert to a variety of bitrates and compare. In the end I bet you'll find higher bitrate MP3 is just fine but only you have your ears so test away.

Also note that the music most people listen to isn't produced well enough to even truely test the MP3 codec's abilities.

Steve