I want a really high capacity MP3 player

[TexasRockbox]

Originally Posted by The DarkSide

Um, Texas, that's a media vault - they kinda suck for DAP usage.

It is a vault, but a vault that stores and plays FLAC, OGG, AAC. It's not gapless but it sounds decent and does display cover art. Even has a Wolfson Audio chip.

Can install any 2.5" 9.5mm SATA drive into it, unlike Archos that chains the drive to the hardware.

The firmware is a bit crude. I have copies of most of the datasheets and several firmware versions. I keep thinking one day I'll attempt a Rockbox port to it...

[Just Some Guy]

Originally Posted by Olley

With the advent of Cloud services, I doubt any manufacturer feels the market demand for high-capacity players. With any 8gb Android phone or PMP and a WiFi or cell connection I have access to my entire music collection from Google Music. It's a free service. You can download some of it (up to your local storage capacity) for local access if you're planning on being out of web-access range, and Google throws in a few free songs every now and then (to promote new albums or artists). Now as soon as they come out with a cloud service I can upload my DVD collection to I won't ever need a high capacity drive again, not even on a PC.

And whenever the service is down, you can't get to anything for hours or even days.

Or if that service ends up going under due to business issues like bankruptcy, you can't get to any of it at all.

Really, we have the technology to carry a fuckton of media with us, so why not just have it with you? Yeah, it may cost more, but you have the advantage of access to your media at any given instant.

[The DarkSide]

Was a modded Zune 120 mentioned? Popping in a higher capacity HDD would really be sweet,...

[Just Some Guy]

How easy is it to mod a Zune? Because if it's even slightly difficult, I don't think the average person would be able to do it.

[Sviatapolk]

Originally Posted by Olley

With the advent of Cloud services, I doubt any manufacturer feels the market demand for high-capacity players. With any 8gb Android phone or PMP and a WiFi or cell connection I have access to my entire music collection from Google Music. It's a free service. You can download some of it (up to your local storage capacity) for local access if you're planning on being out of web-access range, and Google throws in a few free songs every now and then (to promote new albums or artists). Now as soon as they come out with a cloud service I can upload my DVD collection to I won't ever need a high capacity drive again, not even on a PC.

Google music only gives you 100gb of space.

Cloud storage or remote streaming from home are great ideas, but they simply can't replace locally stored media.
-You have to rely on (multiple) internet connections and power
-AT&T has bandwidth caps for 3g service, and I believe Verizon introduced it as well. I rushed to buy my iphone in July from verizon because I heard they were introducing bandwidth caps
-No streaming app to service supports gapless playback. Try listening to Pink Floyd The Wall or a Grateful Dead show without it.

So if there isn't enough demand for a high capacity purely music player, then why not one that does video as well with a touch interface? Why not have something similar to an ipod touch but with a hard drive rather than flash memory?

[steinburger1109]

Originally Posted by Sviatapolk

Google music only gives you 100gb of space.

Cloud storage or remote streaming from home are great ideas, but they simply can't replace locally stored media.
-You have to rely on (multiple) internet connections and power
-AT&T has bandwidth caps for 3g service, and I believe Verizon introduced it as well. I rushed to buy my iphone in July from verizon because I heard they were introducing bandwidth caps
-No streaming app to service supports gapless playback. Try listening to Pink Floyd The Wall or a Grateful Dead show without it.

So if there isn't enough demand for a high capacity purely music player, then why not one that does video as well with a touch interface? Why not have something similar to an ipod touch but with a hard drive rather than flash memory?

Dude, we hear ya. Marv speaks for the vast majority of us: "Screw the cloud."

Everyone's right, there's not really demand for that. The biggest market is the spoiled little kids who buy an iPod Touch with Daddy's money so they can play some games and listen to crappily encoded dubstep to destroy their ears.

[musichound]

Originally Posted by Marvin the Martian

Screw the cloud.

My feelings, exactly.

[OriginalGusBus]

You know what would really be great? A player that had 256gb+ and could stream as well. I guess that Archos may have touched on that, but something that had a good sound quality and a simple UI would the key.

[Adub]

There is little market for headphone amps, custom iems, $1200+ range headphones, etc but a market exists. It's the same deal for daps which red wine audio is really the only one with a solid release which is just a modded ipod.

If someone released a readily available and competitively priced 500gb SSD dap with good firmware, form factor, and performance, it would sell. No question about it.

[El C]

Originally Posted by Adub

If someone released a readily available and competitively priced 500gb SSD dap with good firmware, form factor, and performance, it would sell. No question about it.

Wouldn't that be selling to a niche market as well? I don't think there are many people who need that amount of space unless they either carry a lot of videos or FLAC albums.

[The DarkSide]

I'd buy an ssd rocking 500gb dap in a frigging HEARTBEAT!!! I could carry almost all my tunes + some video. It would be a dream come true,...

[steinburger1109]

Originally Posted by The DarkSide

I'd buy an ssd rocking 500gb dap in a frigging HEARTBEAT!!! I could carry almost all my tunes + some video. It would be a dream come true,...

You're part of the aforementioned niche, my friend.

[tienbasse]

How do manufacturers know that it would only be a niche market unless they try at least once ?
When I see only 2 websites in all Europe proposing 64Gb Sony players, I don't think that Sony has the slightest idea what they're missing in terms of market...

If people actually blindly buy 300$ Monster headphones, why wouldn't they buy expensive players as well ?

I'd kill my dog for an Android-based DAP with more storage than the Galaxy series (just kidding about the dog)!
And no frigging Archos 48 thanks...

[numbersix]

What's wrong with the Archos 48, Tienbasse? I only ask because I'm consdiering getting one but am a little wary as no one's raving about it. Need an mp3 player above 100GB and not a fan of the ipod.

[Just Some Guy]

Originally Posted by numbersix

What's wrong with the Archos 48, Tienbasse?

It's not that it's bad, so much as it's not really good, either.

It's terribly middle-of-the-road when it comes to audio and playing it. The music browser is a little clunky with tiny buttons on a somewhat unresponsive touchscreen.

Output is meh. There isn't much in the way of enhancement aside from a limited EQ. Also, there is some electrical interference from the hard drive when using headphones. It's a known problem and Archos never fixed it. Yes, it was minor and only happened on some of the devices, but still...

It's just terribly average. For the money, you could get a far better player with less capacity, but far better everything else.

[Adub]

Originally Posted by El C

Wouldn't that be selling to a niche market as well? I don't think there are many people who need that amount of space unless they either carry a lot of videos or FLAC albums.

My point was that portable audio niche markets thrive...So ummm what?

[El C]

Originally Posted by Adub

My point was that portable audio niche markets thrive...So ummm what?

Ah, my mistake. I thought you meant it as a mass-produced product.

[FuzinEvolution]

I absolutely HATE HATE HATE how the market is moving towards clouds, I think its a awful idea speed-wise and having access to your data because lets face it, you can't get access everywhere and the limits carriers impose on its users is criminal (2GB a month for most carriers, thats what 2 high definition videos or a couple hundred mp3s).

I'm almost certain this is why Apple stopped updating capacity on every iPod and even downgraded the shuffle.

Outside of the iPod Classic there isn't anything thats high capacity that is decent and I understand your frustration. I would love to carry around everything and not have to worry about syncing or swapping out.

The 240GB swap for the iPod Video is about as great as you are going to get or a Zune swap (which the sound is better) as I understand they use the same hard drive configurations. The 240GB is unfortunately a slow hard drive and there is noticeable lag when navigating with it, for this reason I don't use it for music.

I'm not a techie when it comes to hardware modifications I'm not great at it and the two swaps I've done with two iPod Videos (240GB strictly for video output to my TV and another one swapped with a 120GB for music) are pretty easy. The iPod Classic models however are designed much more strict and are very hard to take apart (2007+ models).

The iPod Classic, while nice capacity wise, the sound quality is very meh. If you go from something like a Sansa Clip+ to the Classic its dang near intolerable.

The only other decent solution is multiple SDCards BUT this is a pain since it wouldn't run in a uniform fashion and you would likely run into the problem with copying over dupes because you've forgot what is on what.

So yeah, pretty much iPod Video or Zune with a 240GB HD swap is about as good as it gets and due to the flooding overseas hard drive prices have risen sharply so you may want to wait.

I'm actually upset that Microsoft discontinued the Zune as they realistically are the only ones that have made a quality high capacity player space and sound quality wise. It would also bring capacity wars in which each company would compete for one another.

[tienbasse]

Originally Posted by FuzinEvolution

I'm actually upset that Microsoft discontinued the Zune as they realistically are the only ones that have made a quality high capacity player space and sound quality wise. It would also bring capacity wars in which each company would compete for one another.

Same thing as 64Gb PMPs, where were Zunes sold exactly ?
Answer: only in the US, although some of the Zunemarket content was also available in other countries.

No offense intended, but US does not even represent half of the world market, and if you want to compare, Apple products are available in every country and in all distribution channels (supermarkets, audio store, general stores, internet...).

I work in an area where competition if fierce, and good marketing and a huge distribution network has made us the leaders in this area, more than the quality of the products (not that our products are bad, but competition is also providing good products).

When I see Microsoft and Sony keeping their ancient strategy of geographical product segmentation, no wonder they get slaughtered.
In some areas, geographical segmentation is pointless, and audio is one of them.

[Big Sky]

Originally Posted by FuzinEvolution

I absolutely HATE HATE HATE how the market is moving towards clouds, I think its a awful idea speed-wise and having access to your data because lets face it, you can't get access everywhere and the limits carriers impose on its users is criminal (2GB a month for most carriers, thats what 2 high definition videos or a couple hundred mp3s).

Letting other people manage and store you music is like letting other people manage your money. Sure it might be safe and seem safe but if you don't pay them they will take it all away.