Considering purchase of E280R

[Roboturner913]

Would this be a good buy? As far as I can tell it fits all my needs - microSD, big screen, tactile controls, Rockbox capability.

Any reason I should not do this? Other options are Fuze V2 or another brand entirely. I've already had a ClipZip and liked the functionality but not the size or build quality.

[FreeZ5]

Both the E280R and original Fuze are older players and it may be difficult to find good quality units.

Regarding the Fuze V2, unless the seller is willing to check the firmware, it is tough to be sure that you're getting a V2.

Good luck.

Steve

[Roboturner913]

It's new in the box, so I'm not worried about that. The big appeal is that even if it has been sitting around for years and the battery is toast, I can replace that easily.

Any issues with running Rockbox on these? After digging a little deeper it appears it is significantly different from the regular 280...

[dgb52]

If you get it consider getting a case and screen protector as they scratch easily

[skip252]

I never Rockboxed a R version E2xx. From reading the manual and the Wiki it seems as if the difference is only in the installation procedure. If that's the only difference from my E2xx players I'd think it wouldn't be a bad choice. There's is one fair size "gotcha".

There's a fair amount of unavoidable background noise on a Rockboxed E2xx player. If you use low impedance IEMs it can get pretty noisy when it first boots and when it accesses the flash memory. It's less with full size cans but it's still there. I listen to mine with full size cans quite a bit and don't notice the noise much except during the boot sequence and for a few seconds after.

The sound quality also isn't *quite* as good as a Clip or Fuze. The scare quotes are because I don't find the difference objectionable under just about every condition I use mine. It doesn't measure as well but it's not something I pick up on much during out and about listening. I like how it sounds but that may just from years of listening to them.

[zP0kE]

You may not be able to use the larger capacity microsd cards with it. I have a 16gb microsd in mine though I've never tried anything larger. It's relatively heavy because of it's metal body. Mine still runs on it's original battery and holds a charge well. As mentioned earlier, there is a bit of background noise when the player accesses the microsd, and the sound quality is not as good as the clip. It's not a problem with me since I have mine connected to an external speaker and I'm not listening through headphones. Otherwise its a quality piece of hardware that will stand the test of time. If it's a good deal, snatch it up and pick up an extra usb cable on ebay.

For music on the go I use my clip+; I've gone through 3 clip+'s so far. They don't last. Amazon has some great prices on the clips today, Black Friday. $30 for a 4gb clip zip, $25 for a 4gb clip+.

[saratoga]

The e200R and e200 are the same player just with different bootloaders installed, so they'll both work with any size SD card (provided you fat32 format it and run rockbox).