|
I saw that earlier, but thought it was not really worth the effort.
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2018 04:35
|
|
You are receiving this broadcast as a dream...We are transmitting from the year one nine... nine nine ...You are receiving this broadcast in order t
|
|
| # ? May 8, 2024 11:27 |
|
|
I've been using the FiiO X5 (2nd Generation) for about 8 months now and figured I would give some thoughts. Like a few others I've seen post here, I was addicted to my Zune  . I bought one when it launched and was subscribed to their service until it shut down. It was amazing and such a great value with the 10 free mp3's every month. About a year ago I accidentally lost my entire mp3 music collection and the Zune did that thing where it tried to sync and deleted everything on it's hard drive that it couldn't find on my PC... so I finally moved on.The positives Since it has room for 2 micro SD cards, space is no longer an issue. I was reaching almost 80gb in MP3's, so I was also at a point where I was going to have to consider a zune 120gb or an alternative. This also meant I wasn't limited to mp3's and could start obtaining flac's. I'm no audiophile so it's hard to quantify the difference in sound quality between the Zune and X5, but as good as the Zune sounded to me I would say the X5's audio quality is 2-3x better. It's got an equalizer as well, which if I remember right the Zune didn't allow for adjustments. The maximum audio levels are substantially louder with the X5. With the Zune, in my car I would have the Zune volume maxed and also my car volume maxed and it was loud but not like loud to the point where I fear for my speakers or my hearing. With the X5 at max volume, I can turn my volume up to about 90% before it becomes uncomfortable to my ears and I think I might break my speakers. Battery life is a gigantic improvement. I've not kept track or anything like that, but if I had to guess in the time between 1 full charge of my X5 I would have had to charge my Zune 4 or 5 times. ( I'm sure it doesn't help with how old my Zune batter was. ) The mediocres The interface on the X5 isn't great and that was probably what I liked most about the Zune and it's ease of use from PC to mp3 player. I still haven't done it yet, but there will probably be multiple hours of work with my music collection to get it displayed on the X5 in a usable fashion. ( Basically creating artist folders instead of having everything unsorted in any fashion in a giant folder. ) The Zune did this pretty well 95% of the time, it really sucked that 5% of the time where it didn't identify an album and you had to manually enter info to get it to appear correctly. The X5 does try to populate a list by artist, but it's far from perfect and depends on your music collection to be tagged/formatted in a certain way. The bads I'm not sure they intended this device to be compatible with the size music collections can be at current micro SD sizes. The first thing I had to do was download an update to even allow a collection over X size to be recognized correctly. So with that being said, a large collection is going to slow down the interface. It's not a deal breaker, but it's not good. It's not an issue of playing songs back to back or anything like that, it's just slow initially loading and navigating large collections. This has changed my listening habits a bit to where I have been preferring playlists, which is the next issue. There doesn't seem to be a way to name playlists, so everything is just playlist 1, playlist 2... and whatnot. ( Maybe I need to show hidden files or something when linked to my PC to change the names?) With the Zune, I could create a playlist extremely easily with it's PC software and put it onto my MP3 player. This isn't possible on the X5 without some outside software, and again pretty clunky/slow since you have to navigate your collection on the device to make playlists. Overall Sucks the Zune is dead, but I'm glad I finally moved on to a better sound quality device. The FiiO X5 (2nd Generation) isn't perfect, but options seem pretty limited with
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2018 22:57
|
|
|
katkillad2 posted:
It's possible, although might depend on what music playing/sorting software you've got available on your PC. I sort all my music using MediaMonkey. Was feeling spendy so bought the lifetime sub. In MediaMonkey, there's a command to export all playlists. Then you can copy that playlist to your device, edit it using notepad and change the 'path' of every file to be TF2:\ instead of d:\ or whatever it is (a quick find/replace all will do it) and boom you're good to go. Then open playlists from Browse Files, rather than from Play by Category.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2018 07:33
|
|
|
How does the AK240 stack up soundwise to the newer AK70 MKii? Also to the AK320? The used 240 goes for about $250 more than the MKii, still a lot of coin but probably justifies itself if the SQ is outstanding for a 4 year-old device in an industry that moves in a glacial pace.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2018 00:51
|
|
|
A few years ago my wife bought me a Cowon J3. It's been a good player and I like it a fair bit, albeit the battery is not what it was and it is getting a touch battered. Since buying it I've paired it with Panasonic HJE900, Ortofon EQ7 and most recently, and my favourite of the bunch, HiFiMan RE600s (non-balanced version), which are my favourites so far. But it's nearly my birthday and Christmas and as usual I don't know what to ask my wife for, and as usual audio equipment springs to mind, so I've been thinking about upgrading my portable set up. Since I got the Cowon there has been a rise of "hi-res" DAPs, made by iBasso, Astell and Kern, The Bit etc. I was looking a bit at the latter's Opus#2 last year. My thoughts were to maybe upgrade my Cowon to one of these, if worth it, and my headphones to the Noble Kaiser Encores, the reviews of which make them sound right up my alley. But I want to make a "sensible" decision. Can I ask therefore: 1. Do the hi-res players offer a sonic advantage over the Cowon J3 for CD-quality files (I mostly use FLAC rips of my CD collection), or is their advantage only in the hi-res arena? 2. Assuming yes and it was worthwhile upgrading the Cowon, would it make sense to upgrade that first and use it with the HiFiMan RE600s for a bit, or should I upgrade the HiFiMans to the Noble Kaiser Encore and upgrade the Cowon later? Assuming the answer to 1 is no, maybe I will just consider the earphone upgrade. Looking forward to any thoughts. OneSizeFitsAll fucked around with this message at 10:28 on Oct 11, 2018 |
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2018 10:25
|
|
|
OneSizeFitsAll posted:1. Do the hi-res players offer a sonic advantage over the Cowon J3 for CD-quality files (I mostly use FLAC rips of my CD collection), or is their advantage only in the hi-res arena? Neither. It's snake oil. quote:2. Assuming yes and it was worthwhile upgrading the Cowon, would it make sense to upgrade that first and use it with the HiFiMan RE600s for a bit, or should I upgrade the HiFiMans to the Noble Kaiser Encore and upgrade the Cowon later? The player is fine. Your choice of headphone is what matters. [/quote]
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2018 11:19
|
|
|
KozmoNaut posted:Neither. It's snake oil. Thanks for the response. It makes sense that the headphones matter most, likewise speakers in a home setup. On your "neither" comment, can I just ask: 1. I know the Cowon J3 only plays 16-bit stuff. Are you saying therefore that on a newer player that can decode higher res files, there is no discernible difference between those and 16-bit FLACs? 2. If there is no difference between the J3 and the newer players when playing 16-bit FLACs would you also say that a decent high end smartphone would also sound as good? Doesn't the quality of the DAC make a difference? I.e. the J3 has a better DAC than the smartphones and therefore couldn't newer players have superior DACs to the J3? I love good audio reproduction but I agree there's so much snake oil going round that it's hard to navigate the bullshit, especially when you are not particularly technically minded.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2018 11:41
|
|
|
OneSizeFitsAll posted:1. I know the Cowon J3 only plays 16-bit stuff. Are you saying therefore that on a newer player that can decode higher res files, there is no discernible difference between those and 16-bit FLACs? No musical content even uses all the dynamic range available in 16 bit audio, so 24 bit doesn't make any difference. In rare cases, the "hi-res" releases have better mastering, but they'll sound exactly the same after being converted to CD quality. quote:2. If there is no difference between the J3 and the newer players when playing 16-bit FLACs would you also say that a decent high end smartphone would also sound as good? Doesn't the quality of the DAC make a difference? I.e. the J3 has a better DAC than the smartphones and therefore couldn't newer players have superior DACs to the J3? Yes, modern smarthphones are generally very good for audio quality. Modern DACs are be audible indistinguishable from each other, and have been since the 1990s at least. There's so much discussion going on about stuff that really doesn't matter anymore. Use your Cowon or use your phone, and listen to some music! 
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2018 12:05
|
|
|
Thanks for your comments - much appreciated.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2018 12:45
|
|
|
KozmoNaut posted:No musical content even uses all the dynamic range available in 16 bit audio, so 24 bit doesn't make any difference. This is a completely crock of poo poo If you live in USA Samsung 7, 8, 9, Note 8 and 9 Snapdragon varieties, audio quality SUCKS. The only good phone left are the LGs in terms of audio quality. The S6 was the last american samsung phone with good SQ. If you are able to get a Enynos based samsung, they do sound good.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2018 17:32
|
|
|
Why do you say it's US phones specifically? My S8 sounds great, as does my Moto X Play. I think you're just full of poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2018 17:38
|
|
|
Axon 7 has the best phone DAC and is very affordable (also a great phone)
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2018 17:41
|
|
|
Cleaning out my office at work and find an old iPod that had been repurposed. I found two more smaller 8gb ones under a desk and thought, I wonder how big that first one I found was? 160gb. Gf has a 16gb touch we were gonna put both our music on for the car cause switching between Bluetooth devices sucks. But now there will be no compromises. Boss was literally gonna throw this iPod in the trash but I was like *yoink* and I'm setting it up now. It restored really easy. I can see the folder structure when I connect it to PC but no music folder. I guess that's locked away? Is there a way for me to put music on it without iTunes?
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2018 22:20
|
|
|
codo27 posted:Cleaning out my office at work and find an old iPod that had been repurposed. I found two more smaller 8gb ones under a desk and thought, I wonder how big that first one I found was? 160gb. Gf has a 16gb touch we were gonna put both our music on for the car cause switching between Bluetooth devices sucks. But now there will be no compromises. 3rd party program like Ephpod or something similar tended to do the trick.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2018 04:50
|
|
|
KozmoNaut posted:Why do you say it's US phones specifically? I actually did blind testing with a friend on the 3.5mm output between Exynos Note 9 and a Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus with my KZ-KST IEMs. The Note 9 RMAA scores on GSMArena were so much more superior that I was confident I can tell them apart easily, yet I only managed to identify the devices correctly only 2 times in 4 trials. Not exactly scientifically rigorous but yet this still a zillion times more honest than sighted full-of-poo poo listening "reviews".
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2018 09:57
|
|
|
I've been able to hear a difference between some DACs in ABX testing, but then I can't tell a 192 MP3 from a 24bit FLAC in ABX testing. So I think comparing DACs is somewhat less snakeoil. DACs still tend to make a minimal difference to my ears compared to headphones or if the music was well mastered.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2018 13:51
|
|
|
Recently, my iPod nano, circa 2008, was stolen out of my car. I mainly used it to play music while driving, but I also had sound files I used for work and costuming. I wasn't too broken up about the loss, since it had a good run and was starting to act up in weird ways. But now I see that all iPods are essentially iPhones without the phone part and they won't work with my old computer anyway. I find myself several generations behind and I have no idea about the best way to access my mp3s on the go. This seems to me like a good place to ask about my current options. I have an iPhone 5c that's due for an upgrade, but still works fine. It has very little memory, though. Internet access is not always reliable for me, which is why I try to stick with downloaded music. Any recommendations?
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2018 22:10
|
|
|
Is it normal to not be able to navigate your library on the ipod itself when connected via USB? Cause thats the case in my car, and it kinda defeats the whole purpose of having 2500 songs if I cant navigate them. Honda infolink or whatever its called is poo poo. I think I'm just gonna sell the ipod I mentioned above.
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2018 23:41
|
|
|
I can recommend the Nokia Lumia 520 as an mp3 phone. Just drag and drop, and it has good sound if you use IEMs. 64GB is the maximum card size though.
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2018 04:53
|
|
|
codo27 posted:Is it normal to not be able to navigate your library on the ipod itself when connected via USB? Cause thats the case in my car, and it kinda defeats the whole purpose of having 2500 songs if I cant navigate them. Honda infolink or whatever its called is poo poo. I think I'm just gonna sell the ipod I mentioned above. I haven't had an iPod in a car in some time, but I'd guess that the iPod defers entirely to the player-device it's hooked up to, and that your car's maker deliberately makes a featureless navigation interface to avoid lawsuits that might occur from distracted driving. If there's an analog AUX input in your vehicle, use that to retain control over your iPod.
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2018 05:49
|
|
|
Saturniid19 posted:Recently, my iPod nano, circa 2008, was stolen out of my car. I mainly used it to play music while driving, but I also had sound files I used for work and costuming. I wasn't too broken up about the loss, since it had a good run and was starting to act up in weird ways. But now I see that all iPods are essentially iPhones without the phone part and they won't work with my old computer anyway. "Best way" is very subjective. I went from an iPhone for music and podcasts to using gpodder and Windows Explorer with a $50 sandisk player, and it's worth the considerable tradeoffs for me to be the "best way." Objectively, I'd pro-and-con it thus: Pros:
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2018 05:58
|
|
|
KingShiro posted:How's it been working out? Responding to this, but my FiiO X1 lasted 2+ years and just now got stolen out of my car (one of the most common ways to lose an mp3 player apparently, rip). Overall I liked it. I find that one thing I need in a player is some physical buttons I can push without looking to change music, pause/play music, power off. Touch screen horse poo poo isn't gonna cut it so the X1 was great in that regard. Operating it in my pocket or while trying to sleep on an airplane without having to look at it was great. Pros Good sound No nonsense Good battery life Sturdy construction, always felt good in my hand. Easy to load music Cons The interface sucked rear end and it was missing one of my favorite ways to play music which was to navigate to "All Music" on my ipod, and then to a specific band, and then to a specific song and play that song but then have all the music on my player be "in play" for the shuffle. The X1 could display "all music" but it'd just be like 1000 "1-Name of Song or Band.mp3" then all the "02-Name of song.mp3" etc. I'm in the market for a new player and I'm hoping to address that issue. I'm looking at new FiiO players as well as Hiby R3 iRulu F20 Song NW-A45/B FiiO M9 I would get the sony 100% if it didn't have a goddamn proprietary connection/charging port. I want the freedom to charge this poo poo with any USB I have laying around.
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2019 06:54
|
|
|
Jerkface posted:Responding to this, but my FiiO X1 lasted 2+ years and just now got stolen out of my car (one of the most common ways to lose an mp3 player apparently, rip). Overall I liked it. I find that one thing I need in a player is some physical buttons I can push without looking to change music, pause/play music, power off. Touch screen horse poo poo isn't gonna cut it so the X1 was great in that regard. Operating it in my pocket or while trying to sleep on an airplane without having to look at it was great. Fiio X1 Gen 2 can do that kinda. I used Media Monkey (I bought a lifetime gold sub because I was deployed at the time and felt like burning some money) to mass change all my files to have the name Artist - Song, and also you can, while sorting by 'all songs', skip to a certain letter of the alphabet so more easily get to your band and thus that song.
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2019 07:49
|
|
|
Plot twist im trying this one out: HIDIZS AP80
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2019 12:42
|
|
|
Pain of Mind posted:I saw that earlier, but thought it was not really worth the effort.
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2019 19:00
|
|
|
Jerkface posted:Plot twist im trying this one out: HIDIZS AP80 Trip report: Build quality good, looks awesome in purple, smaller than I thought. Interface is a little clunky as its touchscreen only for navigation but the actual getting music to play and playing what you want is good. USB-C which is nice. Sound quality has been good. It resyncs its media pretty quickly which is a plus.
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2019 07:42
|
|
|
Jerkface posted:Trip report: Build quality good, looks awesome in purple, smaller than I thought. Interface is a little clunky as its touchscreen only for navigation but the actual getting music to play and playing what you want is good. USB-C which is nice. Its been 4 months and the display broke, maybe a connection within the device or something not sure but it basically forgot how to display images properly. Had to send it back to china which cost me 30 bux. I bought a Cowon Plenue D in the mean time. Has anyone used this before? Its a nice little player but the touch screen is horseshit. Its good once I get it going and can use the side buttons. If anyone has used this have you figured out how to change the generic album images? I want to get rid of some of the less pleasing ones.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2019 08:48
|
|
|
Just came back to see if there were any new MP3 players worth checking out, even though I'm super happy with my FiiO X5 2nd Gen. I've had it for 2 years now and no problems. Only complaints were the interface is clunky and the playlist functionality sucks, but I finally put some effort into figuring the playlist stuff out and it's super easy making playlists on my PC with foobar2000 that the FiiO recognizes. The battery is still doing alright, maybe not as good as when I first bought it but still several hours on a single charge. Unless something really exceptional comes along I'll probably use this as long as it lasts. Only thing currently worrying me is I see zero information on battery replacement.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2019 05:52
|
|
|
Can I get a tip? My sansa clips battery is dying after a couple of years of faithful service. It has good sound and I'd like something similar, but it's too expensive for me. Barring the possibility of changing the battery, what would be a good player that lasts long and plays loud and clear?
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2019 10:05
|
|
|
Think I’m going to buy an iPod touch. Just have Spotify and music on it, and it will work with my wireless headphones. Tempted
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2020 07:56
|
|
|
Do you not have to install the lovely mac player, itunes or whatever, any longer?
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2020 10:17
|
|
|
Tias posted:Do you not have to install the lovely mac player, itunes or whatever, any longer? I think there are third party players that will work.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2020 13:02
|
|
|
haven't used a pod for decades, I just sorta remember itunes being on and everything had to run through that lovely software. Turned me off mac wearables for good, really.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2020 15:22
|
|
|
There’s always Foobar2000 for iOS and Android. I’m still using a rockbox device, but if I was buying a music player now, I’d strongly consider just grabbing a cheap android phone.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2020 16:31
|
|
|
Tias posted:Do you not have to install the lovely mac player, itunes or whatever, any longer? You do, but I have been building playlists in it for a long time. So it’s a quick sync and then it’s distraction free music (unlike a phone going off because of alerts and what not).
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2020 17:30
|
|
|
I'm sure there are other solutions, but I can use VLC to find music on my home network and put it on my iPhone. edit: I use a beat up Sandisk mp3 player b/c I don't want to carry around a slab, I want something tiny and dedicated. A new Sandisk player is still around $50 and I'd just get another one if I had to. doctorfrog fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Apr 2, 2020 |
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2020 17:32
|
|
|
best stand alone player is probably an LG G7 used, just airplane mode it and away you go $100-150
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2020 21:23
|
|
|
LionArcher posted:Think I’m going to buy an iPod touch. Just have Spotify and music on it, and it will work with my wireless headphones. Tempted Just did this and got a refurbed 6th gen. If I had to do it again I'd just get a new 7th gen as iOS 12 on whatever chip the 6 has is just on the verge of being too slow. It's perfectly fine, but if you've got a new gen phone it'll feel a little sluggish. Big fan of mine though and having a headphone jack again is bliss.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2020 01:06
|
|
|
did rockbox do okay with pretty huge libraries? I really miss having all my music on me at once. I've thought about getting another sandisk and putting rockbox on it, but I want even more storage. I've even considered making my own MP3 player from components supported by rockbox so I can have my whole collection with me. For reference, I think I have about 60,000 songs in FLAC.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2020 02:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 8, 2024 11:27 |
|
|
Why not use iTunes Match? Use XLD to convert your FLAC library to ALAC, and you'll have all of your music available streaming on your iPhone.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2020 02:59
|
|