Author Topic: Portable Flac Players (Read 16649 times)

teamdrink · « **on:** December 02, 2010, 12:57:36 PM »

Check out our list of portable FLAC players. They range from 500gb down to 4gb. Hopefully this helps everyone get a better idea of what is available other than ipod. Please let me know if you have any other suggestions, thanks

http://www.squidoo.com/portable-flac-player-comparisons

H₂O · « **Reply #1 on:** December 02, 2010, 02:19:30 PM »

Don't forget to mention the iPhone and iPod Touch using VLC a free app.

spyder9 · « **Reply #2 on:** December 04, 2010, 01:35:17 PM »

Ok. Now which on the list play gapless?

teamdrink · « **Reply #3 on:** December 06, 2010, 09:33:31 AM »

HM-601 Music Player is the only one so far that I know of that plays 24 bit. Not sure about gapless playback.
Scroll to near the bottom of the page with the link provided to check it out. It takes up to a 32gb SDHC, I am thinking about picking one of these up myself.

http://www.squidoo.com/portable-flac-player-comparisons

Belexes · « **Reply #4 on:** December 07, 2010, 11:31:50 AM »

I wish the Sony M10 supported FLAC.

I may just make MP3's of the shows I like and dump them onto the M10. I only need a player for at work to drown out other employees. FLAC would be a plus.

spyder9 · « **Reply #5 on:** December 07, 2010, 10:48:04 PM »

Quote from: teamdrink on December 06, 2010, 09:33:31 AM

HM-601 Music Player is the only one so far that I know of that plays 24 bit. Not sure about gapless playback.
Scroll to near the bottom of the page with the link provided to check it out. It takes up to a 32gb SDHC, I am thinking about picking one of these up myself.

http://www.squidoo.com/portable-flac-player-comparisons

Thanks for the link. But, 24 bit is useless to me, if I'm listening to "pops" in between the tracks.

Manufacturers seem to ignore gapless playback, about as much as Microsoft ignores Flacs.

rastasean · « **Reply #6 on:** December 07, 2010, 11:02:35 PM »

gapped playback doesn't bother me so much but couldn't you just NOT divide the recording into tracks and have it playback one long track? I don't know if this is possible, I'm wondering myself.

H₂O · « **Reply #7 on:** December 08, 2010, 08:12:02 PM »

Don't forget the Sound Devices 7xx series - they are portable and play FLAC16 and FLAC24 - And I am pretty sure they are gapless

NOLAfishwater · « **Reply #8 on:** December 09, 2010, 08:35:50 AM »

I use a cowon media player and it takes sdhc cards for quick transfers. Cheap too

Big Perm · « **Reply #9 on:** December 09, 2010, 03:21:47 PM »

I am looking at this one: COWON J3 32 GB Portable Media Player
I cant figure out if it supports 24b however...anyone know?
a

Big Perm · « **Reply #10 on:** January 16, 2011, 10:46:03 AM »

Just got the Cowon iAudio9. LOVE it. Sound is amazing. Plays 16b flac gapless I have not tried 24b but I heard you can not. Either way this thing is still fantastic. Small light weight and sound smokes my old iPod.

ShawnF · « **Reply #11 on:** January 16, 2011, 02:11:31 PM »

Just got one, too--also had great success with gapless 16-bit FLAC, but 24-bit does not play for me, which is as I expected. Sound is very good, as you say. Excellent player, IMO.

Quote from: Big Perm on January 16, 2011, 10:46:03 AM

Just got the Cowon iAudio9. LOVE it. Sound is amazing. Plays 16b flac gapless I have not tried 24b but I heard you can not. Either way this thing is still fantastic. Small light weight and sound smokes my old iPod.

bobinchicago · « **Reply #12 on:** January 28, 2011, 01:26:16 AM »

FWIW, Rockbox on an iPod Video (I think it's the fifth generation) plays gapless FLAC. The iPod was a refurb off of Woot some months ago. I can't vouch for 24-bit specifically but I'll see if I can test that within the next week or so. http://www.rockbox.org for the deets.

George · « **Reply #13 on:** January 28, 2011, 08:16:38 AM »

How about that new Cowon X7 160GB touchscreen mp3 player?

weroflu · « **Reply #14 on:** February 02, 2011, 10:52:43 AM »

anyone know if you can put a larger hard drive in one of those cowon players...

Colin Liston · « **Reply #15 on:** February 04, 2011, 10:34:35 AM »

Archos 14 player plays FLAC and is only $25

http://www.archos.com/products/mp3_players/archos_14_vision/index.html?country=us&lang=en

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16855501055&cm_sp=ProductSpotlight-_-55-501-055-_-02042011&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=361116&SID=FW9mff37

dyneq · « **Reply #16 on:** February 04, 2011, 12:07:15 PM »

Love my Sansa Fuze w/ Rockbox. Comes w/ 8GB and has an SDHC slot.

Colin Liston · « **Reply #17 on:** February 04, 2011, 01:27:40 PM »

Quote from: dyneq on February 04, 2011, 12:07:15 PM

Love my Sansa Fuze w/ Rockbox. Comes w/ 8GB and has an SDHC slot.

I love my Fuze too, but I'm curious why rockbox it? They already play FLAC files.

dyneq · « **Reply #18 on:** February 04, 2011, 04:16:35 PM »

My 2 big reasons for Rockbox on the Fuze: gapless playback and the ability to play AAC files.

Colin Liston · « **Reply #19 on:** February 10, 2011, 02:14:40 PM »

Ipod now does FLAC

http://hammockdistrict.com/flacplayer

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flac-player/id390532592?mt=8

smokydays · « **Reply #20 on:** February 10, 2011, 07:45:21 PM »

Quote from: Colin Liston on February 10, 2011, 02:14:40 PM

Ipod now does FLAC

http://hammockdistrict.com/flacplayer

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flac-player/id390532592?mt=8

Nice find!

audBall · « **Reply #21 on:** February 10, 2011, 07:59:49 PM »

Oh snap!

I may actually transfer some to my iPod since I've been too lazy to decode/convert until now. And that's having owned one since 2006.

edit - It appears to only be for Touch/Phone/Pad

Tim · « **Reply #22 on:** February 10, 2011, 08:49:43 PM »

Quote from: Colin Liston on February 10, 2011, 02:14:40 PM

Ipod now does FLAC

http://hammockdistrict.com/flacplayer

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flac-player/id390532592?mt=8

awesome. I have a rock box'd ipod but damn this will be nice to have on the phone

audBall · « **Reply #23 on:** February 11, 2011, 12:57:46 PM »

Quote from: Tim on February 10, 2011, 08:49:43 PM

awesome. I have a rock box'd ipod but damn this will be nice to have on the phone

I just finally did this to my iPod (5.5G) Video and can't believe it took this long for me to install it. The installation was cake and the ability to have the option of which OS to run is great. I thought it was all or nothin'...

Tim · « **Reply #24 on:** February 14, 2011, 05:16:53 PM »

same here, I did it not too long ago and have no idea why I waited so long. It was really simple

Leehro · « **Reply #25 on:** February 16, 2011, 01:34:58 PM »

Quote from: Tim on February 14, 2011, 05:16:53 PM

same here, I did it not too long ago and have no idea why I waited so long. It was really simple

Actually rockbox is one of the reasons I started developing FLAC Player. I still have a rockboxed 5g (Video) iPod.
It sounds great, but it doesn't always sync right and I think the hard drive is dying.
I could have replaced it with an iPod Classic but they don't sound as good and can't be rockboxed.
So instead I spent the better part of a year working on an iPhone app

smokydays · « **Reply #26 on:** February 16, 2011, 01:36:54 PM »

Quote from: Leehro on February 16, 2011, 01:34:58 PM

Actually rockbox is one of the reasons I started developing FLAC Player. I still have a rockboxed 5g (Video) iPod.
It sounds great, but it doesn't always sync right and I think the hard drive is dying.
I could have replaced it with an iPod Classic but they don't sound as good and can't be rockboxed.
So instead I spent the better part of a year working on an iPhone app

Bought FLAC Player the other day. Kudos for the great app. Welcome to taperssection!

EDIT: I guess you have been here awhile, welcome back!

Tim · « **Reply #27 on:** February 17, 2011, 04:29:15 PM »

I love the app, downloaded it last weekend. Well done, thanks

Leehro · « **Reply #28 on:** February 18, 2011, 01:29:19 PM »

Thanks guys! I signed up so long ago and never post, but yeah I've been involved with taping/trading for quite a while.

I'm starting to look into true 24-bit output for FLAC Player, don't know if it will be possible or not.

dactylus · « **Reply #29 on:** February 20, 2011, 09:11:37 AM »

Quote from: Leehro on February 18, 2011, 01:29:19 PM

Thanks guys! I signed up so long ago and never post, but yeah I've been involved with taping/trading for quite a while.

I'm starting to look into true 24-bit output for FLAC Player, don't know if it will be possible or not.

Thanks for the app development. It appears that my new work phone will be of the iPhone variety so I'll be downloading this as well. Good luck on the 24-bit output!

mattmiller · « **Reply #30 on:** April 27, 2011, 12:44:05 PM »

Any news on this front? What is the highest gig player out there that will play 16-bit FLACs gaplessly? (I'm giving up on 24-bit for now). Will the Archos 5? It's got horrible reviews, but I imagine most of that is for functions that I will never even use. I just need it to play music.

http://www.amazon.com/Archos-500-Internet-Tablet-Android/dp/B002NEGTOC/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1303922357&sr=1-1

I'm desperate enough at this point that I would even consider going the ipod + rockbox route. I can't stand anything associated with Apple, but I seem to be running out of options. The biggest one I can find on Amazon is called "Apple iPod classic 160 GB Black (7th Generation)". Is that the best I can do?

http://www.amazon.com/Apple-classic-Black-Generation-NEWEST/dp/B001F7AHOG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1303921917&sr=8-4

K.C. · « **Reply #31 on:** April 28, 2011, 01:19:31 PM »

Quote from: mattmiller on April 27, 2011, 12:44:05 PM

Any news on this front? What is the highest gig player out there that will play 16-bit FLACs gaplessly? (I'm giving up on 24-bit for now). Will the Archos 5? It's got horrible reviews, but I imagine most of that is for functions that I will never even use. I just need it to play music.

http://www.amazon.com/Archos-500-Internet-Tablet-Android/dp/B002NEGTOC/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1303922357&sr=1-1

I'm desperate enough at this point that I would even consider going the ipod + rockbox route. I can't stand anything associated with Apple, but I seem to be running out of options. The biggest one I can find on Amazon is called "Apple iPod classic 160 GB Black (7th Generation)". Is that the best I can do?

http://www.amazon.com/Apple-classic-Black-Generation-NEWEST/dp/B001F7AHOG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1303921917&sr=8-4

if you go the ipod + rockbox route, you need it to be between 1gen - 5.5gen...and it won't work with the "classic" model

George · « **Reply #32 on:** April 29, 2011, 10:38:02 AM »

actually, rockbox has made some inroads with their development on the classic 7th gen. It's been discussed on head-fi and it appears that rockbox is beta/functional on the 7th gen.

K.C. · « **Reply #33 on:** May 06, 2011, 11:20:43 AM »

for those with a Windows based smartphone, here is what I'm currently using for gapless(adjustable crossfading) FLAC playback:

http://www.conduits.com/products/player/

mattmiller · « **Reply #34 on:** September 15, 2011, 08:07:54 PM »

Anybody know anything about the Archos 70? For less than $300, it comes with a 250 GB hard drive and FLAC capability. But gapless playback? Anybody know?

http://www.archos.com/products/ta/archos_70it/index.html?country=us&lang=en

mattmiller · « **Reply #35 on:** October 04, 2011, 07:44:37 PM »

So I finally decided to buy a Cowon J3. It's only 32 GB, but I can add another 32 GB via microSDHC. First impressions are that the sound quality is very good. But I may have misunderstood how this was going to work. I've never owned or used any portable media player, but I assumed that I would drag-and-drop my FLAC folders onto the device and it would recognize that the files are organized in folders. Well, I copied over 3 folders, and when I hit the "Music" button I'm presented with a seemingly random list of all of the songs. No organization. All the tracks just thrown in together. Is this the way it's supposed to work?

jlykos · « **Reply #36 on:** October 05, 2011, 06:20:31 AM »

I've had two Cowon mp3 players and it is pure drag and drop. Go into the menus and set the play music boundary or something like that. I think that you can choose from individual files, folders, sub-folders, and such. Try it at the folder or sub-folder level and that may work.

mattmiller · « **Reply #37 on:** October 05, 2011, 06:58:08 AM »

Quote from: jlykos on October 05, 2011, 06:20:31 AM

I've had two Cowon mp3 players and it is pure drag and drop. Go into the menus and set the play music boundary or something like that. I think that you can choose from individual files, folders, sub-folders, and such. Try it at the folder or sub-folder level and that may work.

That helped me immensely. From the main screen, I clicked on Music, which then gave me several different options. I had gone to "Albums", thinking it would recognize the 3 different folders as different "albums", but instead it just presented me with one album called "Unknown", inside of which were all of the songs. Instead of picking Albums I was able to pick "Folders", and then it presented me with a traditional file browser-type interface, with each of my 3 folders there.

The next thing I'm trying to figure out is the display name for the files. When I was viewing all the songs dumped into that Unknown folder, it labeled the songs according to their tagged names (the song title). This folder view allows me to play the "album" I want to, but the files are just displayed as, for example, "skellogg2011-05-03d1t05.flac16". Do people generally create an entirely different set of files, with the song titles in the file names, for transferring to these devices?

Big Perm · « **Reply #38 on:** October 06, 2011, 12:11:15 PM »

use foobar 2000 to write all the information you could want on your flac files. title track, band, source etc. I have the cowon iAudio 9 and love it, once i put info into foobar, it shows up on the screen when i play it

hope this helps
a

Craig T · « **Reply #39 on:** October 27, 2011, 02:06:50 PM »

http://1saleaday.com/wireless/

Sandisk Sansa Clip+ for $20 today

timP · « **Reply #40 on:** October 27, 2011, 06:51:13 PM »

that is a sweet deal
thanks for the heads up Craig

fmaderjr · « **Reply #41 on:** October 27, 2011, 06:55:23 PM »

Quote from: Craig T on October 27, 2011, 02:06:50 PM

http://1saleaday.com/wireless/

Sandisk Sansa Clip+ for $20 today

I can't deal with any mp3 players that rely on correct tagging. I like to drag & drop and to be able to organize files by folders.

Rockbox this player and it can do all of the above. It's small, should sound great (my Sansa e280 does) & add a 32 GB card and it will hold a fair amount of music as well.

Javier Cinakowski · « **Reply #42 on:** October 28, 2011, 11:26:11 AM »

I grabbed one of those Sansa Clip+. look forward to listening to it. i assume it is only 16bit?

rastasean · « **Reply #43 on:** October 28, 2011, 11:43:43 AM »

Quote from: Javier Cinakowski on October 28, 2011, 11:26:11 AM

I grabbed one of those Sansa Clip+. look forward to listening to it. i assume it is only 16bit?

16 bit is what the one I had played. Mine was 8gigs and I had a 2 or 4 gig microsd card.

Word of warning...this thing is SMALL so its easy to lose. I lost mine once and went back to the area I thought I lost it and found it (it was within about 20-30 minutes) but then a few weeks later lost it for good. The clip+ is about the length of 1 1/2 USB thumb drivers next to each other. The battery life was pretty good on it but what I found most annoying is what fmaderjr mentions..it relies on tags to display anything. I guess most tapers don't label the music correctly enough for the clip+ so it usually ended up being one long line of text that scrolled. It was annoying but after awhile I just had it shuffle all the music and skipped a song when I didn't want to hear it. The headphone amp is very surprisingly great, probably equal to my hp120 and I didn't have a problem playing music loud.

enjoy it!

edit...I was thinking in the wrong dimension.