IPod Replacement

[John L]

The 120 gb iPod touch is very nice.  I have one.  But the price is not very friendly. 

[Scott Dolan]

$300 for 128gb really isn’t that bad. Hell my 16gb 3rd gen was $200. 

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I still think that I'd give FiiO a try. The X3 model looks like it's getting decent reviews. What I like most is that you can add 256 GB via microSD card, which can be bought for ~$100 these days (for a decent one).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0743CYBH2/ref=ask_ql_qh_dp_hza?th=1

BTW - my friend bought a last gen FiiO X5 at BH Photo ( https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1249200-REG/fiio_x5_ii_black_x5_2nd_gen_portable.html) and he recommends it. Unfortunately, it's more than the latest version of the X3.

[ATR]

Coincidentally my Ipod Classic began needing much more frequent resets on a drive to and from the NY area this past weekend.  I've never been able to have it go longer than about 200 tracks before it freezes, but only when it's restarted.  This weekend it was freezing after tracks while playing, and at least 10 times in a 5 hour drive.  I was thinking I need to replace it but I know when I bought it that Apple was discontinuing the product, which I think I've confirmed by shopping online.  Are you folks saying you're going to buy one from a private seller?  I think that otherwise your product choice is the Ipod Touch.  Less memory, but a solid state hard drive that lasts longer.

[mjzee]

I also wonder whether the sound quality on the current iPod Touch is better than the iPod Classic.

[Scott Dolan]

I would seriously doubt they've changed the iPod DAC...ever. Why would they? My 3rd gen sounded brilliant. As does me phone and pad. 

[Brad]

11 hours ago, ATR said:

Coincidentally my Ipod Classic began needing much more frequent resets on a drive to and from the NY area this past weekend.  I've never been able to have it go longer than about 200 tracks before it freezes, but only when it's restarted.  This weekend it was freezing after tracks while playing, and at least 10 times in a 5 hour drive.  I was thinking I need to replace it but I know when I bought it that Apple was discontinuing the product, which I think I've confirmed by shopping online.  Are you folks saying you're going to buy one from a private seller?  I think that otherwise your product choice is the Ipod Touch.  Less memory, but a solid state hard drive that lasts longer.

That's the issue I've been having.  I'd be listening to a song and it would turn off. I'd then have to pull out the USB plug for a few seconds and then it would pick up where it left off.  On other occasions you'd have to find the song again as it would start from the beginning, as it were.  A few times, you'd have to do a forced restart of the iPod as it just wouldn't start normally.  

[mjzee]

9 hours ago, mjzee said:

I also wonder whether the sound quality on the current iPod Touch is better than the iPod Classic.

I also wonder whether the current iPod Touch has more memory in cache, and so can do a better job of shuffling the playing order of songs.

[Scott Dolan]

Not sure, but I can tell you that shuffle on the iPad Air 2 is as bad as has always been. 

[mjzee]

1 hour ago, Scott Dolan said:

Not sure, but I can tell you that shuffle on the iPad Air 2 is as bad as has always been. 

What's so bad about it?

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I have had playback issues on car mp3 players that were being caused by long "song titles". I use quotes around song titles because the problem I was having was almost always associated with songs that were buried in multiple levels of folders. For instance, I file my music files under folders for genre, then artist, then album. For example, if I play a song like Mingus' "Better Get Hit in Yo' Soul" from the album "Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus", the song being played is "'Better Get Hit in Yo' Soul" and the actual file name is simply "05 - Better Get Hit in Yo' Soul.mp3", but in reality, the filename is really "Jazz\Charles Mingus\Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus\05 - Better Get Hit in Yo' Soul.mp3". Some players lose their shit when filenames get past a certain length.

Solution: move all music files to the root level (get rid of all folders)

I've also had problems with some music files where I somehow managed to embed multiple versions of the album art into the header. This problem was a lot harder to de-bug and it mainly caused some songs to get a little bit of the beginning of a song clipped off.

Solution: Download an mp3 editor and delete redundant (or all) artwork from your music files' headers. NOTE: this is very time consuming and shouldn't be undertaken lightly.

[Scott Dolan]

1 hour ago, mjzee said:

What's so bad about it?

On larger playlists it seems to favor the same songs no matter what. 

For example, I have one playlist with about 180 songs on it. If I shuffle it and play fifty of them let's say, about thirty of them will be the same each session. 

[Stefan Wood]

I had the X3 and moved up to the X5II.  Been throroughly enjoying it for the past year and a half; with two sd slots and a killer DAC that smokes my beloved Emotiva cd player.  I take it to work with me daily.  Gave my X3II to my dad -- loaded it up with 128GB of jazz and he never is lacking music.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

26 minutes ago, Stefan Wood said:

I had the X3 and moved up to the X5II.  Been throroughly enjoying it for the past year and a half; with two sd slots and a killer DAC that smokes my beloved Emotiva cd player.  I take it to work with me daily.  Gave my X3II to my dad -- loaded it up with 128GB of jazz and he never is lacking music.

Is this BH Photo price good for the X5ii? https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1249200-REG/fiio_x5_ii_black_x5_2nd_gen_portable.html

[Scott Dolan]

1 hour ago, Stefan Wood said:

I had the X3 and moved up to the X5II.  Been throroughly enjoying it for the past year and a half; with two sd slots and a killer DAC that smokes my beloved Emotiva cd player.  I take it to work with me daily.  Gave my X3II to my dad -- loaded it up with 128GB of jazz and he never is lacking music.

If it sounds better than your CD player, why not run digital out? 

[Stefan Wood]

3 hours ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

Is this BH Photo price good for the X5ii? https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1249200-REG/fiio_x5_ii_black_x5_2nd_gen_portable.html

yes

2 hours ago, Scott Dolan said:

If it sounds better than your CD player, why not run digital out? 

Well I already invested in the player, which is on its last legs.  I'm using a Raspberry Pi with a HifiBerry DAC to play my jazz on the home stereo.

[Scott Dolan]

23 minutes ago, Stefan Wood said:

 

Well I already invested in the player, which is on its last legs.  I'm using a Raspberry Pi with a HifiBerry DAC to play my jazz on the home stereo.

No, I mean run digital out from the CD player into whatever preamp/receiver you currently have it plugged into. Let that DAC do the dirty work and see if it improves the overall sound. You're currently running analog/RCA outs, right? 

[Stefan Wood]

I am using XLR cables from the player to the amp.

 

[Scott Dolan]

XLR is an analog output, so you’re relying on the DAC in the CD player. 

Do you have a digital coax or optical out from the CD player? 

If so, I’d try one of those out to your DAC/preamp. Might make a difference. 

 

Edited April 5, 2018 by Scott Dolan

[Stefan Wood]

Y'know, I don't believe my amp has a digital input.  I'll have to check. 

 

Confirmed, no digital inputs.

Edited April 5, 2018 by Stefan Wood

[Scott Dolan]

Well, that throws a wrench in the machine! 

[Stefan Wood]

Not a big deal for me.  The Emotiva is showing its age, and I may not get another cd player.  

[Scott Dolan]

I haven't owned one since 2012. Physical disc media is pretty much dead. Even Oppo announced a few days ago that they were shutting down all their production. 

I think that once lossy codecs finally caught up to lossless audibly it was all over but the crying. 

[Kevin Bresnahan]

33 minutes ago, Scott Dolan said:

I haven't owned one since 2012. Physical disc media is pretty much dead. Even Oppo announced a few days ago that they were shutting down all their production. 

I think that once lossy codecs finally caught up to lossless audibly it was all over but the crying. 

Thanks for the news on Oppo. I hadn't heard that. I may have to go buy a second UDP-203 for my house. It's a great 4K DVD player and *I* still have a use for media even if today's generation doesn't.

Man, am I feeling old these days...

[Stefan Wood]

Wow, I did not know Oppo is pulling out. 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnarcher/2018/04/02/oppo-shock-popular-av-brand-announces-that-its-time-to-say-goodbye/#5cfd3c7f3acc

This might be part of the reason why - Trump's tarriffs:   https://wccftech.com/huawei-us-plans-preventing-other-chinese-players/amp/