Predictable question - a little help in buying

Bri

Right, I'm asking this for a friend:

Any advice on what the best HD player available at present is?

We're talking:
-Good Battery
-Good HD size, not a flash player unless they're suddenly huge...
-Enqueing tracks
-Drag and drop files, not sh!tty software encoding (looking at you Sony)
-Not an iPod
-Line in recording not essential but why not
-Same goes for a portable drive - presume they can all do this.

Anything else I havn't thought of.

I have to warn you I'm totally against mp3 players given the flaws of the format - especially all of these players inability to play tracks seamlessly - the way the album/mix CD was recorded. I'm a MD fan through and through because of this and also the crap battery life on many of the machines. If I'm wrong about any of the above please correct because I'd love to buy a HD machine not a Hi-MD next time I've the cash...

Anyway back to my friend's machine - don't have a budget at present, just want to see what's out there past iPods, Zens and iRivers. Please don't turn this thread into a competition from the respective owners!

Much obliged.

pauln

I'm looking at getting a HDD mp3 player soon and did plenty of looking around. It came down to the iriver H3XX series or the iAudio X5 series. For me anyway the iAudio X5 wins. It will be out in about another 3-4weeks, in 20Gb, 30Gb and a few weeks after that a 60Gb version.

The standard battery life will be 15hrs (has been tested) and there will also be "L" versions of the 20gb and 30gb that come with 35hrs battery life but may be a little on the bulky side.

As for the "seamless" playing, the change over on the X5 is very quick but still a little noticable, around 1/10th of a second but this is more down to the mp3 file format then the player i'd say.

Add onto that the ability to play Xvid video files, fm tuner and line in recording, and the fact that it's not a ipod and I'm sold. One downside is no ID3 tag browsing, but I'll get over that since it means I can just drag and drop folders onto the drive and don't need any extra software.

Pricing available here and a initial review of one from Korea.

Bri

Excellent thanks for that advice - nice to get a balanced answer on this topic!

The lack of trackmarking 'flaw' in mp3 is something most people can live with, and tbh, I'll probably have to just get over myself unless Sony get their ass in gear regarding usability of MDs without Sonicstage (unlikely!). I just hate having to ffwd through a huge 1-2hr file to get back to where I was.

15 hours isn't alot at all - I think I'll look into how much larger the L versions are.

Thanks again.

pauln

If your looking for more info on the X5 the forums at iaudiophile.com are the place to go because of it only being released in Korea on the 14th April there isn't much info out on them yet.

The offical X5 page on the Cowen America site can be found here.

The X5L weights in at nearly 20mm thick, which by my thinking is a little big by what electronics can do these days. It's being compared with the 60Gb Ipod Photo i think.

I was thinking about a X5L 30Gb but i'm not sure now, I might go for the X5 30Gb because of the 4mm thickness difference. I wouldn't be to worried about the 15hr battery life as that's proberly longer then I'll ever need anyway. But on the other side I'll be mainly carring the X5 in my backpack so the 4mm really wouldn't make that much difference to me.
Decisions, Decisions...

Bri

Thanks again.

daveg

I have a creative Muvo. 4GB, great battery life, drag and drop files (comes up as a removable HD). 10/10 imo apart from 4GB is relatively small these days.

Bri

Right so I'm gonna leave the rest up to him thanks!