High capacity mp3 players

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runcible
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High capacity mp3 players

Post by runcible »

I know this subject was touched on before but I can't find the info I was after so...

My old iPod classic is getting past it, plus I have a thing about Apple, a company I loathe, so I want to start afresh with a new set up. I saw some good players by Fiio. Like this one:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/3rd-Generation ... s=fiio+mp3

Hardly cheap but very advanced and with the potential to have lots and lots of music. Or are there there other, better machines at that level?

Now I've been using iTunes for years and I'm used to the format which, although annoying at times, does what I need it to. I can upload CDs, Gracenote finds the titles, I can make playlists to my hearts content. So the question is... If I got a Fiio player - or something similar - is there some similar software to iTunes I can use so I can continue with playlists etc.? I'd love to import my existing iTunes playlists if possible but that might not be possible (is it?). I saw that a site called 'Jriver media centre' has something that looks like it might do the trick. You have to pay for it of course but maybe it's that good it's worthwhile.

What do people think? Can I get a decent replacement for iTunes where I can have similar features? Does anyone know Jriver?

All info gratefully received!
davedecay
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Re: High capacity mp3 players

Post by davedecay »

Are you on a Mac or WIndows PC?
davedecay
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Re: High capacity mp3 players

Post by davedecay »

I was looking at the Fiio units, too.

Reading the reviews, seems a very mixed bag. Some have good experience, others say the sound is crap or high-res files won't play over Bluetooth. Be sure to read all the reviews on the model you are interested in.

Other comments say support is terrible. One thing about Apple, they do have good support. (FWIW)
runcible
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Re: High capacity mp3 players

Post by runcible »

Windows. I am trying to get rid of everything to do with Apple!

Good support? Apple?! I experienced some of the worst customer service ever when I needed help with my daughter's iPhone. That was the beginning of the end for that company for me. Utter scumbags
spacemanrich
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Re: High capacity mp3 players

Post by spacemanrich »

Runcible, remember the Apple was going to ' phase out ' the iPod Classic and I thought that it would have been a good idea to buy one or two for the future, because I know that they would be hot commodity. I thought you went ahead and bought a 160 gb one ? I, too don't like Apple products that much, because they are overhyped, thus more expensive than ever. I think the Apple iPhone X is retailing in the U.S. for a $1,000 ! Freaking a $1,000 bucks for a phone ! That's insanity. I only have the iPod Classic 80gb and iTunes, which I think is good ( admittedly). People say the Microsoft's Zune is a good media player, a bit ahead of it's time ?
TheWarmth
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Re: High capacity mp3 players

Post by TheWarmth »

Sony has various models available, but they're pricey:

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-y1YDyXCjh ... ug=9021706

Personally, I've given up on trying to maintain a digital, portable music player and switched over to Spotify. I bought a Pono for $200 when they did their introductory pre-order special, hoping it would replace my iPod. I mostly hated it. The iPod is far superior. However, I have been very happy leaving my nice head phones (and cord) at home in favor of decent Bluetooth ear buds and Spotify. Spotify doesn't have everything, but generally, I find that it's good enough for me when I'm on the go. I was always anti-Spotify in the past, but I figure I buy enough records to justify the convenience that it affords me and there's no way in hell I could justify spending $500+ on a new player.
Last edited by TheWarmth on Tue Jan 09, 2018 8:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
rameses
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Re: High capacity mp3 players

Post by rameses »

I've had a number of Fiio music players. From the x1 to the x5ii. All were amazing, especially as they have removable storage and are able to handle lossless files.

The biggest positive though is that you're not tied to any particular eco system. I too abhor iTunes.

Currently though I'm just using my mobile phone (HTC 10) with a 128gb micro sd card. It does pretty much everything my fiio does but also has bandcamp, spotify, BBC radio if I want to listen to something else.
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davedecay
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Re: High capacity mp3 players

Post by davedecay »

I'm not sure how Zune was ahead of its time, as it came out 5 years after the first iPod.

It's considered the Edsel of the portable music player world. Some people did like them, though.

I have had a much different experience with Apple, but that's not the focus of this convo.

I'm not a big fan of iTunes, and I use primarily (though not exclusively) Apple devices.

I do like Rockbox OS on a Sansa Clip player for small portability.

There's something to be said about a standalone music player with controls suited for non-touchscreen playback.

I would like to try a Fiio unit, but right now I'm not dropping $100 on any other players, as all of my iPods still work fine.
In fact, I'm replacing a battery in a friend's 30 GB model soon.
runcible
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Re: High capacity mp3 players

Post by runcible »

So with Fiio Players Simon... What software do you use for uploads, play lists etc? Is there a non-iTunes equivalent?

I like the playing format of iTunes but it rather dominates things - files music in new folders it creates itself being a pet hate - so I'd rather find a new player & new software. But I love playlists - or compilations as we used to say.. 8)
olan
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Re: High capacity mp3 players

Post by olan »

Mark,

I used JRiver as a media serving/ripping package waaay back (maybe in 2007/2008). This was brought about for two reasons (i) iTunes didn't handle FLAC then and I had loads of software already and (ii) I had 2500 CDs to rip. In the end it was such an awful product that I gave up on pushing files from a laptop to a DAC and moved to streaming, initially from a NAS Drive and now from a NAS and a VortexBox using Logitech media server.

I have a iPod classic that I take with me on holiday as it is full of stuff that you can't get on TIDAL, but really the likes of Spotify and TIDAL etc are so good that I just use my phone as a player most of the time. I certainly wouldn't recommend JRiver for anything other than batch converting FLAC to MP3, and there are other free utilities to do this. I recently tried the latest version of JRiver against Roon, and Roon won hands down. JRiver is such a massive package that I would be amazed if you could run it effectively on a portable.
rameses
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Re: High capacity mp3 players

Post by rameses »

runcible wrote:So with Fiio Players Simon... What software do you use for uploads, play lists etc? Is there a non-iTunes equivalent?

I like the playing format of iTunes but it rather dominates things - files music in new folders it creates itself being a pet hate - so I'd rather find a new player & new software. But I love playlists - or compilations as we used to say.. 8)
To add music to the fiio it's simply a case of drag and drop in Windows. Once on the player the files can either be viewed in folders (same as on your PC) or if the songs are correctly tagged the categories of artist, album, song, genre etc are available.

I'm not sure about playlist creating software as I rarely bother with them, but I know the Fiios will handle them.
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runcible
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Re: High capacity mp3 players

Post by runcible »

I spoke to a few other people and in the end went for the Pioneer XDP 30-R. It has 2 memory card slots and can take over 400GB of music. It also appears to have a friendly user style and from what I've seen it even works with iTunes. Thanks for everyone's suggestions - I looked up all the machines discussed here!
niamhm
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Re: High capacity mp3 players

Post by niamhm »

I was a bit peeved myself when Apple did away with the old 160 Classic - I still have one which has a damaged memory, operates now on around 40 gb - but since being bullied by my kids to get a Spotify family membership find I use it very little, and deleting of itunes from my pc has freed up loads of space as well. Wont say Spotify gives me access to everything, but the one band I`ve found with nothing is Spacemen 3, :(
MODLAB
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Re: High capacity mp3 players

Post by MODLAB »

They have high capacity kits with solid state drives for the old iPod. Need to to find a reputable dealer to upgrade it but in the end you have a machine that last another 5 years or more.


M
Design.
moop
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Re: High capacity mp3 players

Post by moop »

runcible wrote:I spoke to a few other people and in the end went for the Pioneer XDP 30-R. It has 2 memory card slots and can take over 400GB of music. It also appears to have a friendly user style and from what I've seen it even works with iTunes. Thanks for everyone's suggestions - I looked up all the machines discussed here!
that sounds pretty good to me! Can you let us know how you find it? I'm curious if you find the playback sound quality is noticably better than the ipod, as i was thinking of doing the same thing with that as my main justifcation (along with an increase in capacity from my 160gb). I was leaning towards one of those Fiio things, but couldn't really justify it as i wanted one with space for 2 cards, and those were pretty expensive. Also, my ipod still works fine, so it seems excessive to replace it just at the moment. but when it stops that'll be another story! :)
Aquarian-Time
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Re: High capacity mp3 players

Post by Aquarian-Time »

as Modlab rightly states, you can upgrade your existing Classic. I did that with a Company on the South Coast, doubled the memory pretty much and practically rebuilt the thing to boot
davedecay
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Re: High capacity mp3 players

Post by davedecay »

You can also run Rockbox OS on an iPod (and many other players)

https://www.rockbox.org/
moop
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Re: High capacity mp3 players

Post by moop »

yeah, modding an ipod's capacity and using rockbox is certainly an option. last time i checked, rockbox didn't really work on my particular ipod model though..

for me it's partly a question of how high quality the playback is. would love my next player to sound noticably better, especially since i have some high quality headphones. feels like the player itself might be a bottleneck (and to be clear i'm talking about 320kbps mp3s rather than flac).

I have slightly wonky hearing too, so i'd like a player that can subtly alter the balance too, especially for listening back to mixes i'm working on.

of course more space would be nice too. maybe i'll wait til those 400gb mini sd cards are the norm before buying anything.
davedecay
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Re: High capacity mp3 players

Post by davedecay »

The Pioneer XDP 30R is $200 on Amazon (USA) and is a device I would consider, should my iPods all fail to work at some point in time.

Although I have to say, I'm not a big fan of touch-screen controls on portable music players. It's one reason I like the old iPods! (not a fan of the Touch models, either)
runcible
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Re: High capacity mp3 players

Post by runcible »

Well in the UK we ripped off on everything like that so there is no way of finding that Pioneer machine for anything even near £200...

So far it's been tricky. Getting the music on started off OK with iTunes but I've abandoned iTunes now as every time you went to update the musical content it started the entire transfer again, which took many hours. It also likes to sit there and 'sync' for 15 minutes every time you unplug it. In the end I just did a huge click, copy and paste the music files. Looks Ok but I haven't taken it out and used it on my way to work which is when I used my iPod the most. We'll see...
davedecay
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Re: High capacity mp3 players

Post by davedecay »

Review on sound quality and ease of use, if you please. :)
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