Suggest a rugged PMP

[kazakore]

Last three players I have owned have been Sansa (2x original Fuze, 1x Clip Zip) and while there are factors I have liked about them I have decided they are just not hardy enough to buy yet another one! So please recommend me a nice and rugged music player. Note I only require music playback, no video, no colour screen, no album image etc really required. And if it saves on some battery life I would be happier not to have them...

Desired features (in approx order):
1. Rugged! (This includes having a mini-jack socket that doesn't require poking to make connection good again, which the Fuze suffered from badly.)
2. Ability to play files from folder structure. I do not use id3 or similar tagging! Most the music on my player is mixes or other unsorted music which may be sorted and saved after listening or may be deleted. Being able to Rockbox a device would fulfill this.
3. Able to drive large cans. Usually I use Sennheiser HD25s, which aren't the hardest to drive, but sometimes I might be driving line level or a high impedance pair of cans.
4. Battery life preferably over 12 hours.
5. Sound quality. My music tastes are predominantly electronic, hard and heavy styles such as hardcore, breakcore, DnB, techno etc. Some funk, soul, reggae as well but good bass and presence are probably more important than pure high fidelity and soundscape/separation.

Preferably under £50. I might consider something at a higher cost or I may go with another Sansa, expecting it to only last a few months again, on lack of suitable suggestions.

[CrowdAds]

[BruceBanner]

Well for a start yer not looking for a rugged PMP, yer looking for a rugged mp3 player.

Secondly you might perhaps want to start looking after yer equipment a bit more if yer churning through players at the rate you do. Now i know you haven't specified how long u have had such players but i have owned the aforementioned players and all of them are in fine working order.

You might also want to consider investing in a silicone skin to protect yer equipment, i kept my fuze in a silicone skin and screen protector and its still in mint condition.

But these days i prefer my DAPS naked, i look after my equipment.

With only a 50quid budget and the list of requirements you seek yer really only leaving the sansa range viable. The sansa range is popular BECAUSE it gives such good SQ at such a cheap price point (as well as the rockboxable benefits).
Most members here if they have a problem with a clip they just buy another because... well they are so damn affordable.

My music revolution took me to owning both a cowon i9 and a cowon c2, but this is more for DSP's than anything else.
I'm not sure what yer really after in terms of ruggedness, my advice is take care inserting cables and put a case on any player and u have solved yer ruggedness issues and increased the choice of players available.

[IDvsEGO]

Yeah, at that price range, you can't expect things to be too touch. Unless its a pair of nail clippers. I imagine a 50 quid pair of nail clippers would be built like a tank. Like Bruce said...be more careful or accept that your lifestyle is hard on players. If an MP3 player were built to last forever they would charge out the ass for it. Repeat purchases are part of their profit plan.

[kazakore]

Originally Posted by BruceBanner

Well for a start yer not looking for a rugged PMP, yer looking for a rugged mp3 player.

Yeah was forgetting the M was Media and not Music...

Secondly you might perhaps want to start looking after yer equipment a bit more if yer churning through players at the rate you do. Now i know you haven't specified how long u have had such players but i have owned the aforementioned players and all of them are in fine working order.

You might also want to consider investing in a silicone skin to protect yer equipment, i kept my fuze in a silicone skin and screen protector and its still in mint condition.

[

The Fuze were quite well known for having a cheap, weak headphone socket! That is all that is wrong with my second one and after opening it up so many times to push the pins back into place to make a good contact for only a short amount of time I got sick of it! No amount of rubber surround is going to help with that! The first one got sand in it down the beach... Overall both did last a lot better than the Clip Zip.

The Clip Zip I had to take apart after only a couple of months and resolder the headphone socket as it had come off the board and wasn't making good contact a lot of the time. A few days after that some lady caught my headphones with her arms and yanked it off my pocket, it flew into the air only about 4-5 feet and hit the ground and bounced. Screen cracked it half with only a little bit at the bottom viewable at half resolution. Then a few days later it fully died. I would expect any player to be able to take a fall from more than 5 feet, even if onto concrete! Maybe I was just unlucky with how it landed...

With only a 50quid budget and the list of requirements you seek yer really only leaving the sansa range viable. The sansa range is popular BECAUSE it gives such good SQ at such a cheap price point (as well as the rockboxable benefits).
Most members here if they have a problem with a clip they just buy another because... well they are so damn affordable.

£50 was only mentioned to suggest I would prefer cheaper but durable. If there really was something outstanding at triple that I would at least consider it. Currently feeling likely I will get another Clip Zip... Or I might try taking my headphone socket out of my Fuze with sand damage and put it in the one with the worn headphone socket. Still that would likely only be good a few months...

[BruceBanner]

Originally Posted by kazakore

The first one got sand in it down the beach...

Personally i wouldn't take my DAPs down to the beach for this very reason (and i live in oz lol).

A silicon case may have saved yer clip from that bounce.

Sounds like u have been unlucky also. Even when people report that a certain player is vulnerable to x,y or z problems that doesn't mean every player suffers these issues.
For example, my wheel on my fuze has never had an issue (but has for other users) and I also have accidentally yanked my headphones out of the player sharply (enough to cause the player to come away from my body etc), i've done this 2-3 times and the jacks still fine.

I hear the X7 has a known issue that the device can be bricked if you let the battery run down to 0%, yet many users report they have done this and no problems, so yeh maybe yer unlucky with what ones u bought, try different supplier/batch?

Of all the players i have EVER owned I have never had ANY defects of problems with buttons, jacks, screens etc. My son broke my pspgo Right Shoulder button but then he is extremely clumsy.
Perhaps you need to face up to the fact that perhaps (and i mean no offense) that you are slightly rougher with your stuff and invest in additional protection. I mean, my wife and I both have Galaxy S2 phones, mines is completely naked, and whilst i pocket mine i am VERY aware of the fact its in my pocket, that no other items (like keys) go into that pocket, that when i sit down i push the player to a safer place in the pocket to stop it from bending etc. My wife aint like this at all!
So i've come to realise some people just take much better care of their gadgets and I think i'm one of them, which is why i no longer use screen protectors or cases anymore as it was overkill for someone like me.

Now that i have said this i bet I bust my C2 during my shift at work this morning
But i kinda love DAPs, if one broke i look at it as an excuse to buy a new player

[kazakore]

You'd never take music down the beach? Mind it was with one of these as well



and also a dance music festival (of sorts, at a holiday park/chalets type affair.)


I know I'm not as careful as many but as an engineer I'm quite used to stripping things down and repairing when I have to. Thing is with the quality of components in mass produced commercial products how it is these days and the cost of a new one it seems less and less worth it all the time.

I'll probably just get another Clip Zip and try moving the headphone socket from the one Fuze to the other if I can be bothered...

[BruceBanner]

Originally Posted by kazakore

You'd never take music down the beach?

I couldn't subject others around me to my terrible music taste, that coupled with the extreme volumes I require hehehe

[IDvsEGO]

when I take my music to the beach I use headphones or an external speaker that connects using the headphone jack or bluetooth and keep the player sealed up in a case...or ziplock bag if you dont want to buy a case. this summer I am investing in one of these for the pool and camping...

http://www.amazon.com/Grace-Digital-...of+mp3+speaker

[Carson Dyle]

Originally Posted by kazakore

Preferably under £50. I might consider something at a higher cost or I may go with another Sansa, expecting it to only last a few months again, on lack of suitable suggestions.

That's what I'd do. The Clip is essentially a throwaway, especially if you can find refurbs and don't pay for the higher storage models. Storage on microSDHC cards is much cheaper and doesn't die with the player.

[IDvsEGO]

Originally Posted by Carson Dyle

...don't pay for the higher storage models. Storage on microSDHC cards is much cheaper and doesn't die with the player.

I never use the internal space on my players for music for just this reason. I bought a 64gb card and just move it around from player to player when they die or I have another usage need. internal is used for video or apps or whatever. I used the internal on my last clip+ as a thumb type drive.

[BruceBanner]

^ This is why i also tend to buy lowest storage space models (like my 4gb C2 instead of 16gb etc).

[kazakore]

Originally Posted by Carson Dyle

That's what I'd do. The Clip is essentially a throwaway, especially if you can find refurbs and don't pay for the higher storage models. Storage on microSDHC cards is much cheaper and doesn't die with the player.

Yeah true! I'm thinking more and more I must have just been incredibly unlucky with how it hit the ground too. With no little the player weighs I found it had to believe it can have enough force to smash itself falling just four feet without additional external force. Saying that it did bounce and I thought it was actually going to end up on the Tube tracks...


Although I did realise yesterday I actually have one of these in the lost property from an event ages ago. I did put out multiple messages on my event's Facebook page and similar trying to find the owner at the time with no luck so don't feel too guilty commandeering it...




Wonder how long before I can manage to break the touchscreen... Bet it lasts longer than my phone did