Music players - advice please

[rauschwerk]

A couple of years ago I acquired a Samsung tablet and soon began to use Poweramp to listen to downloaded music in headphones or on my main system via a Harman-Kardon Bluetooth adaptor. Since then, I have acquired an iPhone which runs virtually all the apps that ran on my tablet, including Radio iPlayer.

The other week I left the tablet in a church in France. If I need a replacement just to play music, is it cheaper to get a dedicated music player? I need to play mp3/flac/WMA, gapless as far as possible, and with a Bluetooth transmitter. If it's going to be more than £200 I might just as well buy another tablet. I see that there are various models with the right sort of specs under the brand name FiiO - do any boarders know anything of these?

All information gratefully received.

[richardfinegold]

FiiO gets good reviews in Audiophile magazines for sound quality.
I bought a competing High Resolution model by Onkyo and I don't like it at all.
It may stretch your budget but an Apple Tablet may work well since you have an iPhone

[rauschwerk]

Thanks, Richard. It looks as though making properly titled playlists on the FiiO might be a bit of a pantomime, but I think I'm geeky enough for that job.

[Braunschlag]

I had a Fiio in the past, my first dip into flac and I was mightily pleased with it. I've progressed onto Astell and Kern and also that Pioneer XDP-100r (the little brother to the Onkyo mentioned by richardfinegold.
Fiio have improved a lot since their first incarnation, easier to load tracks and a less clunky UI.
I think I know what richardfg means about the Onkyo/Pioneer design. It's full of useless android bloatware, doesn't always like loading some files (probably my antique Windows 7) but it sounds good. Personally I prefer a standard 'just play the music' device, such as the A&K or the Fiio. You should be aware that you can chuck a 200gb micro sd in most of these things now, even though it specifies maximum capacities - I have 2 x 200gb plus the 128 internal memory in my A&K and it works fine.
I'm afraid that titles and tagging are a nuisance on all of these gadgets and most need editing or shortening. I'm certainly giving a thumbs up to the cost effective Fiio models. They sound great.

[richardfinegold]

I had a Fiio in the past, my first dip into flac and I was mightily pleased with it. I've progressed onto Astell and Kern and also that Pioneer XDP-100r (the little brother to the Onkyo mentioned by richardfinegold.
Fiio have improved a lot since their first incarnation, easier to load tracks and a less clunky UI.
I think I know what richardfg means about the Onkyo/Pioneer design. It's full of useless android bloatware, doesn't always like loading some files (probably my antique Windows 7) but it sounds good. Personally I prefer a standard 'just play the music' device, such as the A&K or the Fiio. You should be aware that you can chuck a 200gb micro sd in most of these things now, even though it specifies maximum capacities - I have 2 x 200gb plus the 128 internal memory in my A&K and it works fine.
I'm afraid that titles and tagging are a nuisance on all of these gadgets and most need editing or shortening. I'm certainly giving a thumbs up to the cost effective Fiio models. They sound great.

You hit the nail on the head about the Onkyo. There must be a hundred useless apps that do everything except play music and are constantly asking to be updated. Meanwhile, adding files to the hard drive, and then trying to scroll between them, is very counterintuitive and frustrating. By the time I had a chance to play with it and discovered what a pain it is to use the return time had expired. I went back to using the iPhone with Bluetooth headphones as a portable player

[Braunschlag]

Thought so... I went online to find a way to delete all the pointless apps and junk that came with it. After numerous 'this may delete other data' warnings I deleted them anyway and, guess what, it still works fine. These Pionkyo players do sound very good but do they really need to come preloaded with all this unwanted electronic litter?
I'm certainly going to stay clear of android in future and I'm by no means an apple slave. But their stuff is so streamlined in comparison.
I only use it for the train these days as I'm a bit nervous about taking the A&K out. With hindsight I should have stuck to A&K, it plays music exceedingly well and that's all it does.

[Dave2002]

The FiiO X1 seems to be around £100 - review here - http://www.geekypinas.com/2015/03/fi...#axzz3dPXtnGpo

The FiiO M3 is cheaper - well under £100. https://www.whathifi.com/fiio/m3/review

For the particular application these may be good enough. I do have a cheap FiiO DAC which is OK, though not a music player.

Other players may sound better or be better built, but at a significantly higher cost. Is it worth spending more than (say) £150 on a portable music player?

I use iPads if I'm going on trains - and the train noise is hardly conducive to quality listening, though I do use relatively good headphones. Indeed, the headphones may make more of a difference than the player unless one is going really high end. Expensive kit is more nickable - or if not actually more nicakable - would be more painful to lose.

[richardfinegold]

The FiiO X1 seems to be around £100 - review here - http://www.geekypinas.com/2015/03/fi...#axzz3dPXtnGpo

The FiiO M3 is cheaper - well under £100. https://www.whathifi.com/fiio/m3/review

For the particular application these may be good enough. I do have a cheap FiiO DAC which is OK, though not a music player.

Other players may sound better or be better built, but at a significantly higher cost. Is it worth spending more than (say) £150 on a portable music player?

I use iPads if I'm going on trains - and the train noise is hardly conducive to quality listening, though I do use relatively good headphones. Indeed, the headphones may make more of a difference than the player unless one is going really high end. Expensive kit is more nickable - or if not actually more nicakable - would be more painful to lose.

I use Bose Noise canceling phones on airplanes and they work great. The best portable player isn't going to be heard over transport noise without something like them.
I would like to use the Bose as my only headphone when traveling just to save space by not carrying two sets of headphones but the Bose leak enough sound to disturb my wife despite being closed back phones. So now I carry a small set of Klipsch ear buds to supplement them and while they sound excellent I hate feeling as if someone is sticking fingers in my ears