Topic: iso of small mp3 style player that plays flac and has at least a 20g capacity

[stirinthesauce]

Ski season is fast approaching and seeing as how my little rio mp3 player only holds 256mb of mp3's, it is only good for my weekly 3mile runs.  I'm looking for a player that is relatively small, will play flac files, and hold at least 20 gigs of files.  I'm too lazy to convert my stuff to mp3 so the ability to play flac is a must.  It would be nice if it could be a backup/extra recorder.  I'm thinking my only option is an h-120 w/ Rockbox.  Just wondering if their are other options out there in the same price range and also how the h-120 would stand up to some heavy movement on the ski slopes.  Should I just say no to all hard drive players and look for something that plays sd or cf cards?  Of course that route limits my capacity and increases my costs.  Cheaper the better as it will probably get destroyed anyways, I'm a little reckless on the slopes 

Any and all input would be greatly appreciated!
-Jon

[Brian Skalinder]

Dunno much about the H120, but I like my iAudio M3.  Latest and greatest, the M5 (audio only) and X5 (audio + video), both play FLAC.  FWIW, converting to MP3 or OGG or some such really isn't all that hard.  Just use dBPowerAMP, select all the FLAC files you want to convert, and fire it off.  Sleep on it, go to work, etc., come back and they're all done.

[whatboutbob]

if you're gonna trash it you could just buy an old ipod and rockbox it. see rockbox.org for supported models.

[stirinthesauce]

if you're gonna trash it you could just buy an old ipod and rockbox it. see rockbox.org for supported models.

Dunno much about the H120, but I like my iAudio M3.  Latest and greatest, the M5 (audio only) and X5 (audio + video), both play FLAC.  FWIW, converting to MP3 or OGG or some such really isn't all that hard.  Just use dBPowerAMP, select all the FLAC files you want to convert, and fire it off.  Sleep on it, go to work, etc., come back and they're all done.

Thanks for the tips.  I wasn't aware rockbox could work for both models mentioned (ipod and iaudio).  Guess I'm gonna troll ebay and see what I can get.  Definitely will probably get trashed so the used market is best for me. 

Brian, I have dbpoweramp but have yet to use it.  I just want the convenience of dragging and dropping flac files.  One more step is just one more thing I would rather not deal with. 

Thanks for the tips fellas 

[George]

I would not recommend a HDD based player for rough, fast movements...the shock of such movements will definitely wreck your player.  Go solid state.

[stirinthesauce]

I would not recommend a HDD based player for rough, fast movements...the shock of such movements will definitely wreck your player.  Go solid state.

Any recommendations on one with decent capacity and plays flac?  Brian's rec. on the x5 shows that it is shock resistant.  I'm clueless on the product lines for personal, portable players but my necessities are that it plays flac files and has a fairly large storage capacity, preferrebly around 20gigs. 

[pfife]

honestly man, if I were you, I'd bite the bullet and convert them to mp3.  If you convert them to mp3, you can spend much less money on one with much less capacity, which, imo, is a good idea if you know its gonna get destroyed.

[George]

I would not recommend a HDD based player for rough, fast movements...the shock of such movements will definitely wreck your player.  Go solid state.

Any recommendations on one with decent capacity and plays flac?  Brian's rec. on the x5 shows that it is shock resistant.  I'm clueless on the product lines for personal, portable players but my necessities are that it plays flac files and has a fairly large storage capacity, preferrebly around 20gigs. 

I honestly can't recommend any solid state players since I've never owned any.  However, I would highly recommend a trip over to head-fi.org and check out reviews.  Maybe a solid state player with 4GB capacity should do it for you.  I gotta agree with pfife, forget flac, just mp3 whatever you need for mobile use and keep your flacs on your pc. 

[KLowe]

second on the DB poweramp.  Convert your flacs to VBR mp3...still sounds very good.

highlight files>right click>done

[dnsacks]

more dbpoweramp fluffing.  With my iaudio m3, I simply copy the flacs over to my player, use windoze' search function to find "*.flac" on the player, select all found flacs and rightclick convert 'em to mp3s.  Since the player will play both flac and mp3, this makes x-fering to the player quick and easy and gives me a relatively simple method of claiming back space once I start to reach its (40gb) capacity.

[phr]

I agree about the hard disk.  I'd say run some batch program that converts all the flacs to mp3 or ogg (let it run overnight if necessary), then get a flash player.  My favorite flash player for sportiness and ruggedness is the iRiver T10 but its largest model is 2GB, equiv to maybe 10-12GB of Flacs.  It plays MP3 and Ogg Vorbis and runs for around 40 hours on one regular AA cell.  You can get an 8GB Sandisk E280 (MP3 only) for around $180 now but it uses a proprietary ($20 replacement, at least it's removable) lithium battery and has some annoying UI decisions.  I'd never buy an Ipod.

[tapeworm48]

anyone here previously used an ipod and then switch to something else, like the Cowon?  i'm curious to see if people had to re-extract their music collection, or if it could be transferred from itunes to the new software.  thanks.