Best mp3 player around?

[admin_exported]

I am currently looking for a new mp3/mp4 player after my samsung P2 is slowly going kaputt.
I am willing to pay top money if it gets me a great mp3 player. I looked around and it seems that every
player has it's own little faults. I want a perfect (or as near as) sound.

Some time ago i read that Bang & Olufsen made mp3 players, but i can't seem to find them anywhere.
Does anybody know if B&O still make mp3 players? And can you tell me which mp3 player you currently have
and how you experience it? I am just looking for a top notch sound....

 

[John Duncan]

 

[TALON1973]

i think ( but don't have ) teh ipod classic is supposed to be top-notch for music playback

 

[cliffster]

I've just purchased an ipod nano 5th gen and I must say I'm very pleased with it.

Wasn't too taken with the 6th gen, too small, don't like the touch screen interface.

You can't buy them retail anymore of course but there are plenty of new, factory sealed ones available on Amazon or Ebay.

Some people don't seem to like being 'slaved' to itunes, but I have found it to be very intuitive and easy to use.

Oh, as with all apple products the first thing to do is throw away the awful supplied headphones and buy a decent set of in -ear ones. (I use a set of sonys).

Cliff.

 

[Anonymous]

For the best in audio quality - something like a cowan or a creative zen x-fi2.

The interface on them is not as good as apple though.

I tend to use my droid to play flac with swappable 32GB microsd cards for music. I can also stream my entire collection stored on my NAS over the air or wifi (for free).

 

[steve_1979]

If your only interested is sound quality and don't mind paying top dollar I can highly recomend the Sony A Series Walkman used together with Westone UM3x headphones. After much research and listening to lots of MP3 players in shops I found that this combination sounds just about perfect (to my ears) and is better than the iPods and Cowons IMO.

 

[Jettgod]

If High quality Sound is the main driver, then look no further than the Cowon J3. It also plays FLAC & Ogg files as well. Coupled with some decent headphones IMO this would be very hard to beat. Jettgod

 

[Anonymous]

... I want a perfect sound ...

Hifiman or Colorfly. About 400-500 pounds...

 

[drichardb]

If your looking for top notch sound you need the following...

A Sony/Samsung/Cowon player - I wouldnt go near Apple with a barge poll, for pure sound quality they are a joke.

A good pair of headphones - Standard phones just dont cut the mustard. OK Sony's are better than most but if you want the best then its gonna cost you a bit more on top. I use Sennheiser's IE8 'phones and whilst the fit could be better (my ears arent very big so gonna get some moulds made when i can afford them), for the money they are simply outstanding.

A Portable Amp - I used my Sony NWZ-A729 by itself with Sennheiser IE6's before I bought my PA2V2 from electric-avenues. When you turn the volume up on an mp3 player the amp starts to struggle big time running off its tiny battery. I found myself wanting more from the sound so after a bit of research I found I could get this little bundle of fun for £50. BOY WHAT A DIFFERENCE!! The beauty of an amp is it takes the pressure off the device - you can run the volume lower extending playback time and the overall sound is punchier, more detailed and just sucks you in to whatever your listening to.

My current setup cost me a total of £250 (£80 player, £50 amp, £120 headphones off ebay) and you should probably budget more like £350 total if your planning on getting a high end Sony or Cowon player.

 

[steve_1979]

Yes, I agree with drichardb about using a headphone amp. When trying different combinations of headphones and MP3 players I found that about 90% of them sound better when used with a amp. In particular headphones with a low sensitivity seem to benefit the most.

The Westone UM3x headphones that I use don't really improve when amped because they have an exceptionally high sensitivity of 124dB.

 

[iMark]

I have an iPod Nano 5G (16GB) and that sounds very good with Apple Lossless files. But I mainly listen to podcasts anyway. Earphones are Sennheiser CX300. I don't like the white earbuds, not only because of the sound but they don't fit and leak a lot of sound.

In an Apple environment iPods and iPads work really well with iTunes.

 

[manicm]

i think ( but don't have ) teh ipod classic is supposed to be top-notch for music playback

Nope, the recent ones are poop. In every possible way. Unless you have a digital dock then go for it, otherwise avoid. Like the plague.

 

[Anonymous]

hi guys,

im in a similar situation - want to upgrade from my ipod nano 8g to something with 16g

best player seems to be the sony (a or s series) BUT i hear that in uk it has a really bad volume limiter added :/

so maybe a philips aziz (or whatever it is called )

or a ipod nano 5th gen - but not sure if sound qual is as good on these - plus pricey

cheers
dan

 

[bigboss]

I would choose between these two:

http://www.sony.co.uk/product/nws-a-series

http://www.apple.com/uk/ipodtouch/

Add an amplifier like suggested for superior audio quality, & of course, a decent pair of headphones.

 

[drichardb]

hi guys, im in a similar situation - want to upgrade from my ipod nano 8g to something with 16g best player seems to be the sony (a or s series) BUT i hear that in uk it has a really bad volume limiter added :/ so maybe a philips aziz (or whatever it is called ) or a ipod nano 5th gen - but not sure if sound qual is as good on these - plus pricey cheers dan

As far as I am aware all Sony players have had volume limiter's in place for several years. I've unlocked the limiter on my last 3 Sony players but that was before I got my amp. If I buy another Sony player I dont think i'll need to unlock it as the amp does all the hard work now (besides improving the already good sound quality).

If your worried about cost have a look at the Sandisk Sansa Clip+. The 8Gb version can be had for less than £30 at the moment and the sound quality is a rival to players costing 5 times more imo. And to make it even more tempting - it has a micro SD slot so you could expand it with a 16Gb mirco sd card for as little as £15 - £45 for a 24Gb player? Thinking about it I may do that myself!!

 

[steve_1979]

hi guys, im in a similar situation - want to upgrade from my ipod nano 8g to something with 16g best player seems to be the sony (a or s series) BUT i hear that in uk it has a really bad volume limiter added :/

There is alot of reviews claiming that the A-Series doesn't go loud enough. I've tried mine with a few different sets of earphones and found it goes more than loud enough to damage your hearing if you played it at full volume. It goes up to about 90% of the max volume of my Creative ZEN MP3 player.

The Sony A-Series is very good but there are a couple of things to bare in mind though. First of all it doesn't play FLAC so your stuck with WAV if you want to use lossless files. It does still manage to sound better playing 320kbps MP3's than most other players sound when playing lossless files though (IMO).

The other thing to bare in mind with the A-Series is that it's very picky about which earphones you partner it with. It sounds terrible with all the Sennheizer IEM's I've tried, but Westone's IEM's work very well with it. The standard Sony earphones that come with it are ok quality too (miles better than the rubbish you get with Apple, Creative and Philips players).

 

[Lee H]

I found Cowon to be very good, even though the menu system and instructions were designed rather badly. I use an iPhone purely for ease <hangs head> over SQ.

 

[manicm]

if you're using a portable as a, um, portable, there's no need to rip higher than 320k anyway.

 

[Anonymous]

hi guys, thanks for the replies. don't get email alerts here so didn't realise there were any my tunes are all in itunes at the moment. have been advised that the AAC files aren't DRM protected these days. do that is good volume wise I think I should be ok I think as don't play things to loud. I'm using my bose ear buds current. they do need more volume than my senn cx300s though. cheers dan

btw. I understand that A series can't do gap less play back.
so does that men I will have odd pauses inbetween tracks?

 

[Anonymous]

just read some reviews of the clip and seems that it might have some reliability issues ?

I think it might have a bit of a budget look to it for me due to the screen. sounds like a good player other than that though.

I have around £100+ to play with. so hopefully Sony a series will be the one. think it is around £120 at mo.

cheers
dan

 

[steve_1979]

I understand that A series can't do gap less play back. so does that men I will have odd pauses inbetween tracks?

The Sony A-Series doesn't do gapless play back so there is a very brief pause inbetween tracks. It doesn't bother me though because the pause is so quick that I hardly ever notice it.

 

[Dazmb]

Well I have a Cowon X7 and it's glorious for sound quality. Does FLAC and gapless, and the 120GB version (which should be good for most people) can be had for £200. The 160GB is a bit more.

I also have a 32GB Sony X1060. They are not made anymore, but you can still pick up newish ones on Fleabay for +/- £150. The sound quality of both of these players ace the overpriced overhyped tat that dribbles out of Cupertino every year. If sound quality is your #1 thing.... The Cowon UI is not great though truth be told.

 

[steve_1979]

volume wise I think I should be ok I think as don't play things to loud. I'm using my bose ear buds current. they do need more volume than my senn cx300s though.

As I've said before I've never noticed any problem with the volume on my A-Series (bought from Amazon) which goes almost as loud the other MP3 players I've tried. For example, when using efficient Westone earphones I never need to turn the volume up to more than about 30-40% max. When trying the less efficient Sennehiser CX300-II I had the volume set to about 60-70% max.

Maybe some of them have a volume cap where others do not, who knows? But with so many people complaining about the volume problem there must be something to it even though mine seems fine. It's probably a good idea to buy from somewhere that will be willing to give you a refund just in case you get the same problem. Mind you, if you intend using Bose earphones which you say need plenty of volume it would be worth buying a cheap Fiio amplifier which will make a big improvement to the sound quality no matter which MP3 player you get.

P.S. hope this hasn't put you of the A-Series Walkman, I think it's a great MP3 player in every way and would recomend it to anyone.

 

[Anonymous]

thanks guys. almost sold on the Sony now

hi Steve,

thanks for that great info does it definitely work with apple AAC format do you know?
don't think I've asked that before

thanks
dan

 

[steve_1979]

I don't know, I've never tried it with AAC because all my music's in MP3 format.