Portable FLAC playes? Any good ones?

[The Chameleon]

Hi, I don't like mp3s, and my entire music collection is big encoded to FLAC.

Recently my portable MP3 player I was using died.

I know want to invest some cash and get a good portable unit with lots of storage. It needs to play FLAC.

Any suggestions? It seems really hard to find one that plays FLAC that has more that 4gig memory.

Suggestions and where to buy?

Thanks.

Edited March 18, 2007 by Guest

[Esau.]

I know a couple folks with 20GB Rio Karma's and they play FLAC. They seem say good things about it.

[edit to add]

Just spoke to my brother and he says he used to play FLAC on his 30GB ipod ( link to ipod FLAC setup) but the battery life is alot less, 2-4 hours or so. He's switched to apple lossless now and says he gets about 6-8 hours battery now.

Edited March 18, 2007 by Guest

[The Chameleon]

Apple's lossless codec is garbage and not compatible with anything but Apple. I am trying to get out of the conversion game.

I think the RIO Karma is looking like the wise choice.

No where do I buy one. All the web-sites point to US stores that don't ship here.

Thanks for the input.

[kookycanooky]

i use a iRiver (H-120) or HP 120 but its the same thing. They don't make them anymore but you can get them cheap on ebay. Simple interface - shows up as an external USB drive so you can drag and drop files. 20 gb, but come up to 30 I think. Optical/analoge in and out. Records in many quality levels...plays multiple codecs including flac.

[SolarGarlic]

The Chameleon,

Well, I have ALL of the players mentioned above...

The Rio Karma - Not a bad device, I have had mine for over 2 years now and it hasn't had any issues (though the HDD is starting to get loud). You can't buy new ones any more though...only reburbs, and usually only through Ebay. 20 gigs is OK and the interface on the screen is easy to use. I don't like the software....The unit itself has some cool features though. First of all, the dock has an ethernet port so it will show up on your home network and you can access it from any computer in the house. This makes it easy to transfer files from the office to where your stereo is hooked up. For the car, you just need an aux line and a mini jack connector.

IPOD - I have a 60 gig Video loaded with RockBox (http://www.rockbox.org/) and I love it!! The onscreen interface is not as friendly as Apples but the power of playing flac is worth it. I have a "skin" loaded on mine that looks just like the Apple operating system....It is a bit tricky to use with other add-on devices such as the dock/remote/etc but does have a few work arounds to make it useable. Video playback is not supported so they have developed it with dualboot capabilities allowing you to access the Apple software to watch videos.

iRiver H120 - see notes for the Ipod. I don't use this for a player, just a nice portable recording device. I have a Church Audio Preamp, AT 853s and my H120 that all works really great for live recordings. This unit will also play flac once rockbox is loaded.

In the end, the Ipod works great if you're willing to read and follow the directions on the rockbox site to get the OS loaded....It EASY and WORTH IT!!

Cheers!!

[Esau.]

No where do I buy one. All the web-sites point to US stores that don't ship here.

I emailed my friend who has one and he's pretty sure the Rio Karmas are discontinued, aside from outside distributors and refurbished ones. He emailed me this link for the player that handles FLAC.

http://www.infonec.com/site/main.php?module=detail&id=16589

And the store is in Toronto. 132 Dundas Street West - (416) 341-9900

[edit to add]

There ya go, SolarGarlic's got first hand info.

Edited March 18, 2007 by Guest

[The Chameleon]

Bitchin'! Thanks Alabama man.