Hello there good people of LYN!

I'm looking for a new, carefree digital player. Now I am concentrating my budget on the IEM/heapdhone, so the player will not be expensive but will have to sound good. I have in mind is an ACS T15. I'm running away from bass for a while because I have been listening with the uber-awesome bass god the FS Atrio for close to a year now, and I'd like some change in sound sig and an upgrade. Will be back into buying bass IEMs (maybe the Senn IE8 ) later in the future.

So I need something which will cost Under RM400, has expandable memory and warm sound. X19HD is out. I'm left with a few range from Sansa, and Cube C30/Gumstick and the like. Hoping that there is some new DAP which I haven't heard of since I left this audiophile arena for a while that you guys can recommend. Something that will be plugged to a mid-range IEM/headphone and will have that analytical but warm sound. I don't mind it being quite analytical and cold...maybe I need to get back intot he sound that made me fell in love with high-end audio in the first place.

Any thoughts on HiSoundAudio RoCoo-P?

IE80?
This I gotta see.

More expensive than the IE8 i presume?

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: May 8 2012, 04:03 PM

Oh please do a tiny impression post here if you ever audition it.
Anyways, what's a good DAP to pair with something like the ACS T15 or a Phonak Audeo? I'm leaning towards BA now as I miss hearing details after almost a year with warm and bassy. The Atrio isn't that bad with detail but needs a little bit of concentration on my part to hear them.

Something like the Clip Zip is okay ya?

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: May 8 2012, 10:11 PM

Tried the Sansa Fuze+, and since all the other products like the Clip Zip and Clip+ share almost and identical sound (almost) I'd say I tried them all.

Tried the Gumstick and C30 and they were quite a little bit more engaging and musical compared to the Fuze+.

Read rave reviews aboutt he Rocco-P...but where are you anyway? I'm at KK. If you're somewhere else far away that wouldn't be possible.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: May 11 2012, 05:39 AM

Oh really? Oh well.
I think for my budget's sake I'm gonna stick with a Zip for my future purchase.

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Added on May 11, 2012, 12:11 pmNah, too much stuff going into Cowon that I won't be using.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: May 11 2012, 12:11 PM

Nah I won't need to I think. I might just get a Clip Zip, since many comment it still does have the warm but neutral sound of Sansa, which I am quite familiar with. Not the best of sound compared to say, the colder but more impactful Teclast T51, or the natural sound coming off the baby monster of Hifiman the HM-601, or the musical but non-vulgar sounding C30/Gumstick, but no slouch either me believe. I'm looking for good sound but my IEM is priority (seriously thinking of getting an ACS T15).

The Hippo Gumstick IIRC has enough power for most things. Powered up my Radius DDM1, Sony MDR-EX300SL, Hippo Shroom EB and SoundMagic PL50 and PL30 pretty well. Has good bass and some colouration which gives it a bit more musicality without sounding too artificially enhanced. Also it sounds more dynamic.

The only Sansa I've ever compared it to was the Fuze+, which according to reviews sounds a little less fuller compared to a Clip+ (which is said to have a similar sound to the Clip Zip, according to a review I read at least). Comparing the Fuze+ and the Gumstick, the fun sounding one is the Gumstick. The warmer and more neutral (some would call it flat, incl. me) is the Fuze+. The Gumstick worked better with very warm IEMs like the Radius DDM, while the Fuze+ works well with analytical ones.

In terms of power both can drive IEMs pretty loud without cracking so no probs there. Practicality wise I'd say Sansas with the better UI and longer battery life wins. Both sound good, it's just a matter of preference.

Sansa Clip/+, Fuze/+, Zip seems to share a similar sound sig, although sounding a bit different here and there....that is if you can detect those difference.

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Added on May 17, 2012, 10:56 pmScratch Gumstick as it has terrible radio reception.
If my memory serves me right, the Fuze+ I had did have a good radio reception. Displays quite nice too on the screen. Dunno about the smaller Clip Zip. The 4GB Fuze+ should be priced around the same as an 8GB Zip (or maybe cheaper).

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: May 17 2012, 10:56 PM

Those UI bugs are minor from my experience and rarely happens. If, however I scroll really fast and select really quickly I do get stuff like wrong button response and lag. If you buy it from Jaben they have a great customer support for warranty, for when something really bad happens to the player (like it won't turn on for example). Oh and visibility under strong light, really is as bad as they say...just so you know. I never did mind that, always have my hands blocking the light away.

Oh and I dunno if there are newer firmware for the Gumstick, but FLAC files that have a high compression level doesn't work well with it. They often don't play. If there is like a firmware revision recently that fixes this, then it's great.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: May 18 2012, 12:37 AM

Yeah pretty much. That is for the Fuze+ though. Not sure about the others.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: May 18 2012, 08:55 PM

What PMP is that?

Hey that's a pretty good player for Full HD video...I'd keep that in mind.

If you don't mind the small and limited capacity, the new Sony B-series aren't that bad considering your type of music. For RM200 you can get the 4GB. It's got the bass enhancement and although very coloured for a non-audiophile who looks for fun, the player is it I guess. Good battery life too, and navigating through the player is easy.

Or if you are the kinda guy who can stand a bit of UI shortcomings and bland 2 line OLED screen for navigation, and minor bugs here and there, the Cube C30 is perfect. It's got BBE enhancements that actually works in making the music engaging, it actualy is fun to use. It's got 4GB with a microSD slot so you can expand the storage capacity, and the battery life is good to at around 20 hours.

Summary:
Sony - Good UI, better controls, bass enhancement, great battery life.
Cube - Clunky UI, BBE enhancement, expandable storage, good battery life.

Sansa Fuze+ came to my mind. Search for it here in the Tradezone section. Have to pay a bit more for shipping. Be warned, the touch control can be a bit of a pain to use if you're the type who can't adapt very quick. I myself have a bit of annoyance with the player when I had it.

I can't think of others that have that much storage at that price, that sounds at least decent. The other is the Clip Zip. Much better button controls and has a tiny screen, enough to show you the album art and stuff. A bit small though, about the size of a matchbox.

Another one is the Cube C30, but only 4GB but with expandable memory (uSD slot). Has a tiny two line OLED screen though, and can get very annoyingly illegible under strong light. Controls are alright with a few occasional bugs. The better sounding player IMO than the Fuze+. I won't recommend this unless your priority is sound quality.

Forgot one more, but I don't have any experience with it, and reviews regarding its sound quality is mixed. The Teclast X19HD. A small 8GB player (with no memory expansion) with hardware bass boost. Said to be the most powerful of its class and size. You might wanna look at it. Being a Chinese designed player, be ready for bugs in UI and controls. I just thought I'd inform you about it to open up your options.

If you can find early Creative mp3 players, they're rather good. Simple and plays music well.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Jun 5 2012, 08:56 PM

Those look alright. My experience with Creative players are rather good, if rather bland. But that was with a Zen Mozaic. They are generally trouble free.

Hehe, if it sounds good I won't mind that at all.

Removed.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Jun 6 2012, 05:45 AM

There is the 32GB Cowon J3. Plays everything you mentioned, and does not require any special software (or so I understand) to link to your PC and transfer media into. Look for MrJinggles' Cowon Audio sales thread in the tradezone section. Never had one or tried one, but Cowon is famous for sound quality.

There is also the Hifiman line....but very bulky, very old school cassete-player-walkman looking. I had one (HM-601) once. Really really really great sound...but I cannot bring it around without having people wonder from what era I bought that from.

So far the only Fuze that can be rockboxed is the old one, not the newer Fuze+. The old Fuze has been discontinued for a while, so availability is scarce.

I am also wanting to buy and upgrade my rig...but I haven't found a part-time job!

And I have to find one before I go on to uni next year.

Oh, and in case any of you wanting to find a cheap 4GB player with a decent screen, I just auditioned the Sony E463 (the 4GB sibling). At first I thought it was awful with my Atrio. Then I looked at the settings and the karaoke function was on, the EQ was set to Pop, Clear Bass was on. I turned every EQ and enhancement off, and to my surprise it was very very good. It had a balanced sound sig, very slightly towards the bright side, and frankly quite detailed. I was surprised. Now I know what my first player would be. Next after that would be the Cowon iAudio 10 and then probably the RoCoo-P.

The new B-series with every enhancement off however is a disappointment. In fact without the Clear Bass enhancement it sounded worst than the older B-series with the enhancement off as well, very anemic even with the Atrio. I'm guessing they did this to promote the 'Clear Bass' technology, making it appear greater than what it actually is, and 'tricking' consumers into thinking that Clear Bass makes the music so much better. With it turned on however it was very enjoyable, like a Gumstick/C30 but with a bit more weight at the bass.

Yeah that would be better...but it's so much fun I can't help myself.