Best 8gig flash player today?

maxitwist

Well I'm in the market for a good cool flash player with 8gb of memory
I'm looking for the best player out there and i've found about 5 and can't choose which one!

the top 5 are:

Iriver clix 2 4gb but 8 should come soon
iriver x20 8gb and mini sd slot
meizu m6 4gb here and uk but 8gb available internationally
cown d2 4gb but with sdhc slot
sony NWA808 8GB

i remember there was someone here not so long ago sounding very entuasiastic (thats terribly miss-spelt ) about the sony.

I want something with easy to make playlists on the device, not llike the sandisk e200, curse their difficult to use playlists!

I'n not sure how much video I'll be watching on it though.

I like the built in speakers of the x20, and the flash games of the clix2, and how small and cool the meizu looks. i know the cowon willl be high quality because its a cowon and the touchscreen looks really cool the sony to looks quite nice and the screen looks bril, but there's no games

so what do people think, which one should i get?

pleasant Co.

D2 hands down, I love mine, although I am selling it over on adverts.ie but only because I need the cash.

The D2 also plays flash games btw

Hal1

The iriver x20 8gb and mini sd slot which seems to be descent enough but only supports mp3\wav\ogg but the SD is a plus.

Kintarō Hattori

maxitwist wrote:

i remember there was someone here not so long ago sounding very entuasiastic (thats terribly miss-spelt ) about the sony.

That would be me Sir! I got the NW-A808 pretty much the day it came out and I haven't regretted my decision one bit. It's a pleasure to use, the battery life is superb, it's quick to charge. The screen is a joy to look at and the sound quality is amazing.

Had I not bought that, the Cowon would have been my other choice. We sell them where I work and they constantly fly out of stock. We don't get that many returns on them either.

Wertz

eo980 wrote:

That would be me Sir! I got the NW-A808 pretty much the day it came out and I haven't regretted my decision one bit. It's a pleasure to use, the battery life is superb, it's quick to charge. The screen is a joy to look at and the sound quality is amazing.

Had I not bought that, the Cowon would have been my other choice. We sell them where I work and they constantly fly out of stock. We don't get that many returns on them either.

Toying with the idea of getting the 808 myself....is this your first sony DAP? How do you find the volume level on the player; loud enough? Any other niggles?
My vaio pocket is too big and bulky to throw in my pocket and even though it's nice to have 40gb of music with me, it's really not necessary...

maxitwist

hey can anyone give me some info on the transaction of making playlists on these things, and generally how much you can do on them? (rename files, idtag, move files, delete ect.)
and I don't see any mention of flash games on the d2 http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/cowon/d2/

whwer did you see that it could

pleasant Co.

Its in the latest D2 european firmware beta (the final release is due before the end of the week, or it's in the current Asian firmware release)

So to answer your question, where did I see flash games on the D2, on my D2 hehehe.

On the D2 you can make playlist though WMP or MediaMonkey or On the go playlists on the D2 itself, (they're called dynamic playlists on the D2)

Hal1

Probably the best of the 8gb flash variety for such a wide support of audio codecs, and good looking too. I have been looking at alot of various media players over the last week or so but this one, gets my attention the most.

maxitwist

doesn't look bad this really caught my attention "Internal flash memory 4GB, 8GB, (16GB)"
Can it go up to 16GB!!:eek: I don't need it, as i only have 8gig of music but other people would

pleasant Co.

while it is possible, cowon at this moment in time have no plans to release a 16gb iaudio 7, hat may change in the future but is unlikely.

I'm not too keen on the iaudio 7's thickness and size to be honest, that battery life sure is a plus though.

maxitwist

Ok well thanks everyone for they're replies,
since last Iposted I have had a chance to play with the d2 and tbh I didn't like the gui at all. so thats out. and the clix is out at least temporairily because it only goes to 4gb.

so that leaves the sony, the x20 and the meizu m6.
Being able to make playlists easily on the device is a big bonus, like it was on the zen micro. I like that way, very easy.

Here are my opinions on each player, pros and cons:

Things that make the sony stand out:
I really Like the look and feel, very light too
The screen is superb , nice gui. Great battery life. Good set of earphones supplied
Bad thing: no memory slot, no games or distinguishing feature. Dear.
I got to play with that too, it was very light yet felt good to hold, but the video was a bit small to watch and I forgot to see if you could make playlists on the device, can you?

Things that make the x20 stand out:
built in speaker, micro sd expansion slot. Browser mode.
Bad things: I fear It might be a bit big for what I want, screen looks a bit dull.

Things that make the m6 stand out:
games, Cheap, Looks nice, visulasation (not sure what that is but I'm hoping it will be like wmp and not just pics or something)
Bad points: No memory expansion, mediocre battery, 18fps video limit, no browser or options button.

Hal1

Im going with the iAudio 7. Its a bulky little player but it has everything Im looking for in a player so looks dont bother me too much, and its 8gb.

pleasant Co.

The X20 is similar to the insignia video, but the differnce being that the insignia has better development behaind it. The insignia is US only, so you'd have to ebay it.

thebman

Sandisk have an 8 GB player. Its proven quite popular online and there are reviews for it on Amazon but you can't buy from there unfortunately:

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-SDMX4-8192-Sansa-Player-Black/dp/B000HZ9CCA

Check out the user reviews and the product description.

WaterWolf

I too am looking for a high capacity flash mp3 player. So far the iaudio 7 looks the best but may be a bit pricey.

Does anyone know what the heck this is ?
http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/548156/art/neo/zazz-x-line-evolution-8-g.html

It's hard to tell but I think it uses flash memory too. Pixmania.ie seems to be one of the few sites that sells it. The company that makes it is based in Bulgaria but beyond that I can find out nothing. No reviews, no company website, nothing !

pleasant Co.

WaterWolf wrote:

Does anyone know what the heck this is ?
http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/548156/art/neo/zazz-x-line-evolution-8-g.html

It's hard to tell but I think it uses flash memory too. Pixmania.ie seems to be one of the few sites that sells it. The company that makes it is based in Bulgaria but beyond that I can find out nothing. No reviews, no company website, nothing !

It's a rebranding of this

An exceedingly mediocre flash dap.

Kintarō Hattori

maxitwist wrote:

Things that make the sony stand out:
I really Like the look and feel, very light too
The screen is superb , nice gui. Great battery life. Good set of earphones supplied
Bad thing: no memory slot, no games or distinguishing feature. Dear.
I got to play with that too, it was very light yet felt good to hold, but the video was a bit small to watch and I forgot to see if you could make playlists on the device, can you?

You can indeed.

maxitwist

o good, have you ever had a zen micro? if yes than is makin playlists more similar to that or the ipod/sandisk e200? ie can you name the playlist and save it or is it a tempory "go list"

maxitwist

ok well just nockes of the sony, so two left, must decide now what to get, meizu or x20

Wertz

Got a white a808 today (off eBay for a seriously good price) and I'm very VERY impressed with it. I have a long association with sony players from old tape walkmans through MD players, a HD based player (vaio pocket) and now this....the smallest, best featured and easily the best sounding player I've owned so far. Unlike previous sony DMPs, it doesn't suffer from low volume (I can barely turn it up past halfway currently), there are loads of EQ settings and other sound enhancements (I find it's best to turn that stuff off but sometimes it helps if a file is poor quality).
The screen is jaw dropping....even more than the PSP's one was back when it came out. I put some family guy and heroes on it to see what it was like and I could easily watch an hour long show on the screen. Photos look rich and full of clarity. The UI is nice and is very obvious out of the box...no checking manuals for instructions.
The unit itself is like half a mobile in terms of size and thickness. It feels weighty and dense in your hands but not heavy.
Last of all and most surprisingly, the included 'phones....they're leaps and bounds ahead of what you normally get with a DMP....they nearly hold a candle to my e2c's....nearly. A lot more bass and I find it easier to insert them and get a seal quickly than I do with the shures.
The only downside (like with any sony player) is the bundled s/w; sonicstage has never given me trouble but it's a cumbersone piece of code and doesn't make life easy....if sony made this range of players fully drag and drop (for music as well as video/pics) then they would have the perfect device IMO....I can live with 8gb in flash format. The old vaio pocket will still get use round the house though.

I really wanted a black one of these but they seem to be sold out nearly everywhere. This white one turned up on ebay at the right price and I'm actually starting to like the white matt finish. Gonna have to get a case for it....

Buy buy buy.

thebman

Sonic Stage is the reason I stopped using my Minidisc player. I hate that piece of crap software leaving crap all over my computer.

I'd look for another player with drag and drop support if I were you. After my iPod and my growing hatred of iTunes, I went on a mission to get a drag and drop player and they are just bliss compared to these crappy programs that half the vendors try to ram down your throat.

Sony's Connect store also is pretty pathetic compared to the ITMS.

Ghost Train

thought the 8gb sandisks players seemed decent value for money, get a 2gb card for 20 euro extra for 10gb

think site says "Post & Packing is Free to all UK/Ireland destinations"

http://www.mx2.co.uk/default.asp?part=SANE280

gary the great

Ye im looking at getting the scandisk. Seems to tick all the boxes.

Is it drag and drop?
Whats the advantage of flash over hard drive?

Edit: I see the scandisk doesnt have an FM tuner. Why dont they include these, it must cost SFA.
That rules that out, seemed the perfect player otherwise.

Just seen the MEIZU M6, seems decent. Never seen it before. May look into it further.
where would you buy the iriver x20? Cheapest i could find for the 8gig is ebsy, ut dont know if i would trust it!!

Wertz

Flash is faster to access than HDD, so instant response to button pushes. No moving parts so it's more robust if you intend to use the player for physical activity. Easier on the battery too. The only disadvantage is current price and limited space....but that is changing constantly.

I looked at the sansa for a while....price is good and I like the thoughts of drag/drop but the player has bad reviews with relation to reliability issues. Lots of supported formats though.

pleasant Co.

Forget the reviews, and rockbox the sansa..... that'll make it one of the best flash daps available.... other than the cowon D2 :P

Ghost Train

gary the great wrote:

Edit: I see the scandisk doesnt have an FM tuner. Why dont they include these, it must cost SFA.
That rules that out, seemed the perfect player otherwise.

there is a model with an fm tuner, just costs a bit more

http://www.mx2.co.uk/prodpage.asp?type=prod&sub=SANMP3

flash players usually lighter and smaller too, than harddisk type

gary the great

Thanks for that eolhc, didnt see it.

Th iriver x20 and sandisk can both be got for around the same the same price on ebay.

Both have all the features i want, the sandisk pushes it a little more though with rockbox capability and therefore the ability to drag and drop. Which is important to me. Battery is similar and the fact it can be replaced is great.

But the iriver looks better, feels better, has the speakers built in (which i'd like) and i love irivers - although it is a little bigger and have to use their software.

Anyone know which is more generally reliable and has the better sound quality? I heard there were sound quality issues with the iriver?

Ah i dont know what to go for!!

Ghost Train

i don't really know much about either, just came across the sandisk the other day and it looked good value compared to things like the ipods. I'm still using a iriver h320 with rockbox, so i'd probably be leaning more towards getting anothe iriver too, the clix2 looks very nice

pleasant Co.

^^^if you are using rockbox then your player is no longer an iriver player, its a rockbox dap, which you could do with the sansa too mate.

clix2 looks alright, seems to have a week output though, 17mw left/right

gary the great

I think the clix is to expensive for what it is when you compare it to the x20 or sandisk.

TBH im not totally mad on rockbox, drag and drop is obviously great though but other than that i'd usually prefer the regualr software.

Im going to have to have a good think about this

pleasant Co.

have you looked into the meizu m6?

padi89

Mactard wrote:

^^^if you are using rockbox then your player is no longer an iriver player, its a rockbox dap

What are you on about? Changing the firmware does not mean its a different player.

gary the great

I havent really considered the meizu M6 till now. It seems to have everything that i need and is a bit cheaper to which is alwyas a bonus. Doesnt have the option to expand though.

The only thing is i dont know the brand very well so would be reluctant to buy it.

On the issue of rockbox, if you load that onto your player you nearly always void the warrenty, so just be careful.

So its between the sandisk, iriver and the meizu for me. Will look into the meizu more, am afraid of it just being an asian cheapo thing though.

gary the great

just did a good bit of research into the meizu.
It has drag and drop, fm tuner, excellent firmware with updates all the time (incl. an uodate that makes the battery last longer than the 20hrs listed), its small and solid, sems easy to use, looks good, is ment to have great soudn quality.

Bad points - makes a horrible cheap click button when you prss the buttons.
Cant be expanded beyond 8gig - i'd be a lot more comfortable with 10gig as im coming from a 20gig player.
If you buy it for the chepear chinese price of ebay, you may have warrenty issues (but you can still send the player and warrenty card back to meizu for repair).It can be got for about 125euro incl. delivery from these places. I may take a gamble on it.

maxitwist

The meizu does have a fm tuner yes, but it is only activated by firmware, which VOIDS YOUR WARRANTY, not sure why, but it does.
the x20 makes those clicking noises to, watch a video, if you don't mind buying from us, warehouse123.com have the x20 for $210 and you get a free 1gb card, an fm transmitter,

gary the great

Thats not a bad deal, but you still ahve to add 26dollors for delivery to and run the risk of having to pay customs.

Havent heard anything about the fm transmitter voiding the warrenty of the meizu? You sure? Its the 8gig model from China id be looking to get.

Its between the x20 and the meizu now for me, with the X20 just in the lead even thoug you have to use crappy software to put music on it and its a good bit bigger and more expensive than the meizu. Actually its 50:50, ive ruled out the sandisk though

this here:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-IRIVER-X20-8GB-MP3-VIDEO-PLAYER-X-20-FULL-BLACK_W0QQitemZ290143582303QQihZ019QQcategoryZ73839QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ShippingPayment

or

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MEIZU-WHITE-8GB-MP4-MP3-Player-2-4-M6-Free-shipping_W0QQitemZ130138653148QQihZ003QQcategoryZ73839QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

decisions decisions. im quite broke at the moment so the meizu might be the one as its cheaper by £25

maxitwist

Ya well I've ordered the meizu yesterday, cost €135 for the 8gb.
delivery time was very vauge, 3-14 days.
this is where i got the thing about the fr radio, scroll down a tiny bit. http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/shop/Portable_MP3_Players.1/Dane-Elec.24/MEIZU4GB/Meizu_miniPlayer_4GB_Portable_Video_Player.1984.html
is the x20 software crap? looks quite nice to me.
if it help i didn't get hit with cuustoms when I bought my 504 from usa

gary the great

Yep I see it now. SO it’s not activated for tax reasons, that’s strange. But if you buy it from China, I think it’s already activated and you shouldn’t have a problem. The only thing is if there is a problem you’d have to send back to China.
Where did you buy it from Maxi Twist, eBay or advanced mp3 players? Do you have the link if it’s from eBay? Most eBay shops will mark it as a gift and cheap value to hopefully avoid customs.

I don’t know if the x20 software is good or poor, but the fact it isn’t drag and drop is seriously putting me off. It’s the only thing that is preventing me from going out and buying it now.
The software on the meizu is meant to be fantastic, once it gets the firmware update from its website after purchase.
It’s meant to be quite awful before that though.

From other forums I’ve read most people seem really happy with both players. I wish I could try both out first to see which I like more. I’ve watched videos on youtube and the x20 looks a bit bigger to, which would be a downfall. But those speakers on the back would be dead handy, anyone know if there any use (as far as speakers on the back of an mp3 player can go!)? Would the sound be the same as the speakers and music that’s played from phones?

With regards to warranty issues with the meziu, from reading other forums it’s meant to be quite reliable and it can always be sent back to them in China if there is a problem. However as it seems it can be got from ebay for 130euro I don’t think I’d loose to much sleep if it got broke and couldn’t be fixed. My last player was 330euro and was thus a different story all together.

Kintarō Hattori

Wertz wrote:

Got a white a808 today (off eBay for a seriously good price) and I'm very VERY impressed with it. Buy buy buy.

Heh Heh, good stuff. It is a seriously fantastic piece of kit. While SonicStage hasn't caused any problems in it's current version, as you said it's just cumbersome to use. If Sony were to drop this then the NWA-800 series would be one of THE players to own. The sound quality is superb, the UI easy to use and the screen is so razor sharp.

I'll stop harping on about it, there are so many great things to say.

pleasant Co.

padi89 wrote:

What are you on about? Changing the firmware does not mean its a different player.

LOL, you took my comment much to seriously, relax mate.

But in effect yes using a firmware that is 100% different from the original does change the player, entirely.

gary the great

I was just about to pay for my meziu player through paypal when i decided to do a bit more research.

I found this forum - http://en.meizu.com/userforum/forum_topics.asp?FID=10&PN=1

have a look at it.Everyone is having problems with "white screen", and apparently meizu arent dealing with it. This cant be fixed from what im reading.

ive decided to not go ahead with my purchase and wait a bit longer till i research it more and see what its all about. but it may swing me towards the iriver x20 instead.

maxitwist

gary the great wrote:

From other forums I’ve read most people seem really happy with both players. I wish I could try both out first to see which I like more. I’ve watched videos on youtube and the x20 looks a bit bigger to, which would be a downfall. But those speakers on the back would be dead handy, anyone know if there any use (as far as speakers on the back of an mp3 player can go!)? Would the sound be the same as the speakers and music that’s played from phones?

The speakers according to pocketables.net are supposed to be pretty decent for built-in ones, They said "sound doesn't fill the room, but for built in speakers, they're not bad, sound gets a little muffled when heading towards the higher levels though"

now, i bought from http://www.mp4nation.com/products/index.php?PID=m6b it beat these two because it was the only one that had the black in stock:
http://www.houseofdap.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=53
http://www.accessorygenie.com/detail.aspx?ID=7738

What really swayed me in the end was that the meizu looks nicer, has better use of its size (screen takes up most the space) and i saw a video and they're seemed to be lots of options, which I like. That and I decided that I don't really need more than 8gb, I have only 7.5gb of music and only half that that i regularly listen to.

Hal1

My cowan iaudio 7 finally arrived today and its a sweet little media player. When I first saw it out of box I got a bit of a shock at its size lol, but it has great sound and does what I want it to. Its a little bit more expensive than some other flash media players but worth it.

gary the great

I would buy the meizu, but have you had a look at them forums, everybody is havign problems that cant be fixed apparently and meizu dont want to know. Everyone saying there player broke after a few days/months and theres nothing that can be done to fix it.

So ive ruled it out unfortunatly. Its now between a sandisk with rckbox and fm tuner or goign for the x20. The size and the lack of drag and drop are putting me off the iriver though, so may go with the sandisk. I'll give it a couple more days thought though.

the-ging

This thread is great, I too am looking into getting a player, and was thinking of the D2, but I have one or two questions!

What is the biggest SD card you can put into it? I would be hoping to put a 4 gig card in, so up the total memory to 8 gig.

Also I read in one review that the two folder structures are separate between the flash and the SD card. So if you have music on the SD you have to browse that folder separately, is this true? Or has there been an update to make the data seamless on both devices.

I think I am between the D2 and trying to get an iriver clix2, or maybe the x20 (not not sure due to its size)

pleasant Co.

Currently the D2 supports up to 8gb SDHC cards, there are no affordable 16gb SDHC cards available yet.

Regarding browsing: The D2 works in two ways simultaneously, the way you mentioned which is known as file/folder browsing or you can browse your music via the music library which combines the music files on both directories into on big ID3 database, similar to how the ipod navigates its music.

The D2 is by far the best dap I own, and I definitely give it my dapreview recommendation

maxitwist

gary the great wrote:

I would buy the meizu, but have you had a look at them forums, everybody is havign problems that cant be fixed apparently and meizu dont want to know. Everyone saying there player broke after a few days/months and theres nothing that can be done to fix it.

Apparently the white screen is supposed to happen:
http://en.meizu.com/userforum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1372&KW=white+screen&PID=5848#5848

I don't know, but I'm not too worried. Your choice, a good alternative would be the sony nw-a808

gary the great

But have you seen the amout of people with Meizu's that cant be fixed? I'd say 75% of posts on that form are to do with it and people going crazy that meizu won't help out. I don't need the hassle tbh.

I won't buy the Sony as I once had a sony mp3 player and the software was terribly annoying to use, for that reason alone I won't buy one.

After intially writing the Sandisk off, i think i'll now buy it. Put rockbox on and away i go. Its a good size, can be expanded, has FM tuner, is reliable, good sound and its metal and durable. The iriver looks to easy to break and a bit big, plus it has software rather than drag and drop, but I love the idea of the speakers and it looks way way cooler!
What do you's think: X20 or Sandisk?

I can buy off Amazon to cos im currently living in the Uk, both are the exact same price.

pleasant Co.

I don't like either

The X20's GUI looks drab and boring, and AFAIK the X20 isn't as supported by iriver as their other players.

I bought my sis the E260 last year, it's stood up well for here but the GUI is horrible, although rockbox would fix that.

gary the great

Ye your right, rockbox would sort the GUI issue out.
Im raging over the M6, seemed the perfect buy!

Kintarō Hattori

gary the great wrote:

I won't buy the Sony as I once had a sony mp3 player and the software was terribly annoying to use, for that reason alone I won't buy one.

That's a good reason alright, especially seeing as how they've considerably improved the latest versions of SonicStage. While it's annoying having to use software full stop, it doesn't have any of the problems of old.