Best Portable Audio Player on the market ?

[admin_exported]

I am interested in upgrading my 3rd Gen 40 GB ipod (battery has gone dead). I would be interested to understand what people feel is the best portable audio player on the market at present - solely in terms of sound quality. I intend to buy on this criteria alone and am not concerned with capacity (I never seem to use it all) or format support ( i have access to both Windows and Mac computers).

Is it still one of the newer ipod models or should I go for something else ?

As an experiment, since my ipod went dead, I dug out my old panasonic cassette player and plugged in my Shure headphones. This device is over 10 years old but it wasnt that far behind the ipod, at least not as far as I thought it might be.

I can't continue down this route however due to the pitiful looks I keep receiving from fellow commuters on the train to London when I have to flip the tape over !!

 

[Anonymous]

You do use lossless or at least a high bitrate AAC (256 min ideally 320k)? Just asking as 30Gig feels quite small for me using lossless.

I have recently started using my fifth gen iPod again, a black 30GB one with a lineout out dock and a portable headphone amp, it makes the music really sound amazing compared to the amplifier in the iPod. Admittedly this is quite a bulky option, but it sounds good.

Can't comment on the relative merits of the various iPods in terms of audio quality, but the classic gets generally positive reviews, though the nano seems get more positive reviews

 

[Anonymous]

Yes I use Apple Lossless at present. The reason I am not so concerned with capacity is that I only tend to listen to one or two albums at a time and then when I have had enough of them I burn the next one I want to listen to.

 

[bemahler1]

May I suggest that if you are not concerned with capacity then go for the itouch 16g , I find that the sound on the itouch is a little bit more open than my 80g classic but there is not that much in it, also with the itouch you have the availabilty to download games from the Apple apps, so while you commute to work you can listen and play games at the same time.