New Portable Media Player

[Alathald]

Not to knock off Beaker's old thread (still waiting on a review BTW ) but I'm in the market for a large capacity PMP and wanted to get some input. I'd like around 30-60Gb and don't want to spend much more than $300 (around $200 would be great but I doubt that will happen).

First and Foremost though, it HAS to have great sound! I'm leaning toward a Cowon A3 because it supposedly has wonderful sound and it also has a lot of other nice features (like support for FLAC and a portable video recorder) but it's just so expensive compared to, say, an iPod or a Zune. Was just wondering if I've missed any other PMPs out there...[insert pimp joke here ]

[dicecca112]

Yeah that review is never happening. The thing broke on me so many times, I just got the last RMA and then sold it. I have a Zune right now that I love. Cowon really is nice, but like you say there expensive.

[stev]

Both of my boys have the 30Gb Zune's and love them. They have even done the mod to make them work like USB jump drives for moving data much faster. Also, the Zune will play things without the need to convert the format if you can port over the movies or songs.

[dicecca112]

gotta a link for those mods?

[stopthekilling77]

i second a request for a link to those mods, day before yesterday i got an 80Gb Zune. it took 6 hours for me to get the thing synced to my 48Gb of music, but its AWESOME!

as for the transfer time, all my info was stored on an external 500Gb HDD connected by USB2.0 so i think that had something to do with how long it took.

we've already talked about this, Alathald, so if you have any questions on the Zune just IM me online

[Alathald]

The thing that worries me about the Zune is no EQ (as far as I know); other than that, and the fact that its Microsoft, it seems like a decent little player. Might have to drag my headphones with me to a store and try one out cause the consensus so far seems to be a Zune.

Also, the Zune will play things without the need to convert the format if you can port over the movies or songs.

Does this mean that they now support FLAC? I don't like lossy formats and last I saw the Zune only supported WAV which is like 1.5x the size of FLAC...not a necessity, just a nicety...

[stev]

The thing that worries me about the Zune is no EQ (as far as I know); other than that, and the fact that its Microsoft, it seems like a decent little player. Might have to drag my headphones with me to a store and try one out cause the consensus so far seems to be a Zune.

Also, the Zune will play things without the need to convert the format if you can port over the movies or songs.

Does this mean that they now support FLAC? I don't like lossy formats and last I saw the Zune only supported WAV which is like 1.5x the size of FLAC...not a necessity, just a nicety...

One of my boys here in the forums goes by "aloverof1" or "pavilion cooler", I told him to reply with all of the details. They had to poke around a bunch on the web to get the answers for the mods. M$'s Zune isn't all that bad compared to the iPhone and iTunes that undo the mods and lock people out.

[pavilion cooler]

gotta a link for those mods?

the web site i use for mods is http://www.zunemods.net
it has both hardware and software mods

[Alathald]

OK you guys really got me leaning toward the Zune, seems like a good player at a great price point...may be a couple weeks until I have the funds though so if anyone had anything to add, feel free too. Other than that, if I do get a Zune, I'm definitely going to spring the extra cash for one from Zune Originals. You know how it is, gotta pimp my PMP.

[stev]

Another great Zune site: http://www.zunesphere.com


A special edition HALO Zune is available too!

http://www.zunesphere.com/2007/05/17/sp ... -available