Dear Lazyweb,
I’m after recommendations of a portable music player, which is small
and can play ogg vorbis files. I’m not sure I need something with a
large capacity; 2GB should be fine. Basically want something I can use
in the gym, so I don’t have to listen to the god-awful dance music they
keep playing on MTV Dance. Reasonable audio quality a bonus. Last.fm support would be amazing. I
would be tempted by something that could run Rockbox, but I suspect they
are going to be on the top end of the size scale.
Spent some time checking upcoming gigs and I’ve settled on And You
Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead, The Killers,
65daysofstatic, and The Barfly’s Great Escape mini-festival, 3 days of
gigs over 20 venues. Trying to decide if I want to go to see Inspiral
Carpets and Electric Six in the world’s dirtiest club.
on said:
Check out Cowon’s iAudio! You can see what I have to say about the X5L: http://blog.madduck.net/geek/2006.10.17_digging-the-iaudio . Since you want a flash-based one, have a look at the various products they offer: http://www.cowonglobal.com/product/product_iaudio_flash.php .
I think they are worth it. They’re definitely not perfect, but the iAudio beats the iPod’s user interface IMHO, there are regular firmware updates, and the company should be supported for their decision to support all formats on all players.
on said:
I was about to recommend you the iAudio’s… But it’s ever done ! I own an iAudio M3. Plays Ogg, FLAC, (MP3, WMA), has long-lasting batteries (~10 hours listening), connects through USB Mass Storage… Everything a Linux’er can hope !
on said:
I have an iriver t10 it plays ogg and has great sound quality. It’s small 2G and battery lasts for like 48hours and has a nice clip if you want to attach it to something.
on said:
Samsung’s YP-U2 (and U1) exists in 2GB versions, and are small, support OGG Vorbis, has fully decent battery life, chargers over USB, and of course supports mass storage. I’ve got the 1GB version of the YP-U1 right now; I’ll probably buy the 2GB version of YP-U2 tomorrow, since I saw it on sale for a mere 100€.
on said:
Try the K-PEX series from Kingston. Available in 1gb and 2gb, exandable using mini-sd and supports OGG. Sounds great too
FIrmware is a bit odd sometimes, but apart from that. And it is not very small , either (but not as big as creative stuff)
I never looked back on buying it…
on said:
I’m the happy owner of an iRiver iHP 120, which is starting to age but is still in great shape. You get radio, ogg, recording and 20MB hard drive, and it should be quite easy to find on ebay. Additionnally, the rockbox replacement for the native OS is great.
on said:
I second the iriver T10 recommendation. There is a 2Gb model, the clip would be perfect for the gym, it works flawlessly as usb mass device, and it works perfectly with amarok.
As long as your happy with using an AA battery (I’ve got rechargeable ones, plus you don’t have to worry about the life expectancy of a lithium battery).
It plays oggs to. My only problem with my one is I only have the 512Mb model.