Alternative/Replacement for iPod Classic… …Pono?

[StringsIV]

For years now I've been dependant on an iPod Classic 160 GB (recently also with a Fiio Alpen) for my daily portable Music requirements. Due to the fact that these are now no longer on sale, and the fact that I've run out of space for my Apple Lossless files, I'm now operating a 'one in, one out policy' with albums, has prompted me to start looking for alternatives for when the end arrives for my current one.

I'm curious to know if anyone has any good suggestions for an appropriate replacement? So far the Pono Player looks like a good option. In this instance I'm not interested in it's Hi-res abilities, and I don't want to spark the "can you hear the difference' debate here. It comes to my mind purely on the grounds of good quality audio circuitry and (hopefully) comparable cost to the faithful iPod. The likes of the Astell & Kern and Sony etc. are too pricey for me.

I also don't give a monkey's about the aesthetics, as long as it sounds good, I'll consider it. Thoughts?

 

[cheeseboy]

the first question would be that if you've been using an ipod, does that mean everything is in Itunes? if so, there's going to be a very limited selection for what you can use unless you want to start using 3rd party tools etc.

honestly, for my money, still the best all round portable music player is the Sandisk Sanza/Clip line. They are small, excellent battery life, have a memory card slot, playback things like FLAC and OGG, and sound good too. Simple and effective, and cheap even http://www.sandisk.com/products/music-video-players/clip-sport/

 

[StringsIV]

Definitely worth checking out. At that price it may be worth it just to see. I'd be curious as to what they would actually sound. Don't think they would help with my storage issue though, given that Micro SD currently tops out at 128 GB.

I am not inherently tied to iTunes. Though that's where my stuff is currently, it's very easy to access iTunes content directly from the computer's file structure. Yes it would be nice if a player were able to handle my existing ALAC files, the idea of re-ripping is not that terrifying.

Having done a little research, the contenders so far appear to be:

Sony NWZA-15
FiiO X5
Pono Player

The biggest problem of all is that (with the possible exception of the Sony) I can't think of anywhere that I could audition these devices.

 

[cheeseboy]

Definitely worth checking out. At that price it may be worth it just to see. I'd be curious as to what they would actually sound.

at the price, it's almost crazy not to try it, and should be very easy to sell on if you don't get on with it.

Don't think they would help with my storage issue though, given that Micro SD currently tops out at 128 GB.

yep, but none of them will. You'll have to either carry around multiple cards or look at getting hold of another old ipod and upgrading the hdd.

I am not inherently tied to iTunes. Though that's where my stuff is currently, it's very easy to access iTunes content directly from the computer's file structure. Yes it would be nice if a player were able to handle my existing ALAC files, the idea of re-ripping is not that terrifying.

Having done a little research, the contenders so far appear to be:

Sony NWZA-15

FiiO X5

Pono Player

The biggest problem of all is that (with the possible exception of the Sony) I can't think of anywhere that I could audition these devices.

i think those 3 do play back alac. I think you can also install rockbox on the sanza and other players in order to enable ALAC support. But I don't know where you could demo them, as you say.

 

[pcookie]

I replaced my iPod with a Fiio X1. It's a big improvement on the iPod and my iphone5. The X5 is supposed to be even better. Buy it on Amazon and return it if you don't like it.

Cookie

 

[StringsIV]

I took the plunge, and I'm currently on day three of trying out the Sony NWZ-A15. My decision was based on a mixture of accessible price point, good reviews and a brief listening test in John Lewis. Sadly their demo tracks were both limited, and terrible (John Legend, Calvin Harris, Miley Cyrus & One Direction being the artist of the only 4 demo tracks on offer).

My main impressions so far are that the sound is much improved over the ipod, soundstage is much improved and dynamic nuance is much more apparent. Though it does cope admirably with compressed files, if you feed it uncompressed audio, it really comes in to it's own.

The UI is pleasant, easily useable, but ultimately not quite as polished as the iPod (but that's being picky).

Loading up music has been fairly straight forward. From a Mac, music can be dragged directly from iTunes to either the device in Finder (though this resulted in very little Album Artwork being retained), or via Sony's "Content Transfer" App. This retained much more (though not all) of the artwork, but was also a little slower to transfer.

So far I've been using it with my B&W P7s predominantly, but have also tried with my Audio Technica ATH-M50 and my Audio Technica ATH-M40x. All of which it appears capable of driving reasonably well. Things do improve once again with a headphone amplifier. I will add to this is if I have any relevant updates.