Looking for a small, large-capacity music player

[gibberish]

I'm looking to replace my damaged ipod with another music player. However, it seems to me that there are very few decent competitors in the category I'm looking in.

Basically these are the things most important (in order of importance):
- Large hard drive, preferably 100+ GB (For my entire library; I really hate making/updating selections because I always end up forgetting stuff)
- Has to fit comfortably in my pocket (= at most about wallet-sized)
- Plays lossless formats (especially FLAC)
- Easy to sync with PC
- Powerful interface (I want to be able to view the id3 info, sort, search,...)
- Combined with a smartphone would be a plus

It seems to me that only the ipod has such a big capacity in a small package, which seems hard to believe. Are there any alternatives out there or am I stuck with Apple?

[CrowdAds]

[deadohiosky]

i'm afraid you're stuck with apple (or microsoft zune) here. to my knowledge there are no hdd players (other than ipod classic ofc and the zune) around that will hold more than 40 gb, and even those hdd players are old models and most likely discontinued.

even flash players can hold only 64 gb (zune, sony, ipod) as of now. and you pay royally for that.

on the other hand, hdd players are never fitting comfortably in your pockets, because the hdd is the limiting factor.

my two cents.

[JK98]

Over 100 GB is tough. Perhaps in the fall we might see players with 32 GB internal and an SDXC card slot which will take 64 GB cards(these cards are already out, but no player yet exists that will take them). Player makers have moved away from hard drives, and almost all hard drive based players still being made are video players and not audio players, so sound quality and audio features as well as battery life for audio may be very limited. We are at an inbetween phase now where high capacity flash based players aren't really available, and almost all hard drive based players have been phased out.

Perhaps the answer might be to learn to live with 48GB or 64 GB or storage, carry more than one player with you, get an ipod classic, or use a small netbook. Most netbooks don't have such great battery life though. I think the maximum for one with a hard drive might be less than 10 hours. I don't know how the sound quality on those are.

[McDougal]

Hemm...capacity wise I think you might be stuck with a iPod classic, as much as I'd prefer not to recommend an iPod. Since you said you already had an iPod before, the easiest transition would be to a classic, unless you'd like to get a 120GB Zune, but those are discontinued and no longer supported. The downsides to an iPod classic are its about wallet size, maybe bigger, doesn't support FLAC, and has a simple but not powerful user interface.

[rickysio]

I only know about the Cowon X5 that has a 60GB model, but...

Again, iPod is your only choice in this market now.

[rockbird]

You could buy an older model and just swap out the harddrive. Try looking into the iRiver H320 and Wolverine players?

[deadohiosky]

Originally Posted by rockbird

You could buy an older model and just swap out the harddrive. Try looking into the iRiver H320 and Wolverine players?

have the h320, it's way too chunky for jeans pockets (although i squeeze it in, nevertheless, looks totally stupid, but so does a lanyard with a safety belt or whatever)

i'm gonna reiterate my statement: the size of the hdd is the limiting factor for hdd mp3 players. they use (custom size?) notebook hdds, you can't just cut off some centimeters.

if you want a slim pmps/mp3 player you are almost doomed to buy flash players. you won't find a hdd player slim enough to mod in a cf drive, and you won't find a flash player big enough either (having enough room for battery and drive, respectively).

[rickysio]

Just FYI, 1.8" HDD's are a industry standard, and are hardly custom.

There exists 320GB 1.8" HDDs already. (iPod Classics use 1.8" HDDs, and so do most other devices)

[deadohiosky]

Originally Posted by rickysio

Just FYI, 1.8" HDD's are a industry standard, and are hardly custom.

There exists 320GB 1.8" HDDs already. (iPod Classics use 1.8" HDDs, and so do most other devices)

afaik, there are players out there that use hdds that are somewhat slimmer than 1.8", either in height or depth. dunno which ones though. dunno where i got it from, and that's why i put into brackets accompanied by a ?.

[gibberish]

It seems RockBox fixes a lot of my complaints with the iPod (Better interface, more supported formats), so maybe that will be an acceptable solution for now. If that doesn't work out, I guess I'll just give up carrying my library around and buy a smaller player.

Still, it seems weird to me that nobody but Apple seems to be interested in manufacturing small-size hdd players anymore. I suppose the average person's music library still fits comfortably on <64GB.

[rickysio]

That, and the inherent fragility of a HDD based player - a simple fall is capable of damaging the platter.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by gibberish

It seems RockBox fixes a lot of my complaints with the iPod (Better interface, more supported formats), so maybe that will be an acceptable solution for now. If that doesn't work out, I guess I'll just give up carrying my library around and buy a smaller player.

Still, it seems weird to me that nobody but Apple seems to be interested in manufacturing small-size hdd players anymore. I suppose the average person's music library still fits comfortably on <64GB.

It's been rumored for the last couple years that Apple, too would stop building the HDD players.

[geokite]

A cf modded H120 is pocket friendly, would have to have rockbox, and 128gb cf cards are coming soon (or are here). Meets all your requirements. Sync it with microsoft's Synctoy.

I have a couple H120's with 32gb cf cards. Work great. Used H120's go for around $100 on ebay (when they come up...)

Steve

[synaesthetic]

I wish Sony would revisit the NW-HD5, redesign the buttons so they don't crack, increase the screen size/make it color, give it the same interface as the current crop of Network Walkman players, add gapless on MP3 and a big 160-250GB hard drive.