Portable Players: Loading Files

[richardfinegold]

This question is a corollary to some of the threads on portable headphones and DACs currently being discussed. What is the easiest high end portable player in terms of loading files? I see where Braunschlag has experience with Astell & Kern, Sir Velocity with Sony, and My high end player is Onkyo.
I hate loading files on the Onkyo. It uses an Andoid OS with a zillion apps that have nothing to do what I purchased it for, several of which need to be deleted because they actually interfere with file loading. To actually load a file requires multiple steps, all non intuitive, and file playback is equally complicated.
My idea of file loading is dragging a file from one area and dropping it another, and then done! I was wondering how the Sony, AK, and other players work in this respect

[Richard Barrett]

My idea of file loading is dragging a file from one area and dropping it another, and then done! I was wondering how the Sony, AK, and other players work in this respect

The iBasso unit certainly works like this. What it does annoyingly do is, when there are more than 9 tracks as separate files on an album, play them in the order 1, 10, 11, 12... 19, 2, 3, 4 etc. which of course can be avoided by adding trailing zeros to numbers less than 10 but you have to actually remember to do that.

[Braunschlag]

Greetings Richard,
I'll quickly give you an idea with three players I had experience with.
Fiio - the early model and my intro to DAP portables. It had to format the micro SD itself which was a pain, and that format didn't subsequently work when I put the card into the A & K which was a real pain. I seem to remember I had to load the cards whilst they were in the player and it was very slow. It didn't like some long file names either. Managed to get around these niggles but it ended up more trouble than it was worth. Good sound for the price though. I believe it's less of a hassle in newer models.
Pioneer XDP-100r, the little brother to the Onkyo. It was easy to drag and drop if the SD card was inserted into the PC. It was noticeably slower if files were transferred via the player. The internal memory was frankly a pain in the ****. Slower to fill and it simply wouldn't have anything to do with dropping half a dozen files across en bloc as a batch, bloody hopeless. It may well be my Heritage Windows 7 and even more Heritage Samsung netbook at fault but it was well nigh impossible. I deleted as many of the useless apps as I could, disabled all the wifi and Bluetooth gizmos and anything I could get rid of. I parted company with it a month ago and, on pressing 'restore' all that electronic bloat ware reappeared! So it probably wasn't deleted in the first place, merely hidden.
A and K - no problems at all either on internal or external memories, drag, drop and forget! It also takes 200gb cards which is handy.
I rip with dbpoweramp at level 8 compression in flac to get smaller files. There's no loss in quality of course. MP3 tag for tidying up contents and artwork and that's the job done.
I'm no Apple whore even though I have an iPhone 5 but the pioneer has certainly put me off android for the foreseeable future. When the XDP first came out I was swayed by those Sabre dacs and the twin card slots. Well, there's certainly other dacs which do exactly the same job just as well.
Just so you know I bought the AK120 Titan when it was being discounted on the South American shopping mall. I've been really pleased with it and it's proved to me that doing just one job, playing music files, is more than sufficient. Any extras simply clutter it all up.
The latest Onkyo/Pioneer, which is smaller, seems to have come in for some criticism regarding its OS as well.

[Sir Velo]

I use Sony's entry level HiRes music player, the NWZ-A15, for the simple reason that I couldn't see the benefit of paying more for their premium devices when I use an external DAC (in this case the Chord Mojo). The software I use is Sony's proprietary Music Go which works extremely smoothly and intuitively (as one would expect from Sony). Drag and drop; create your own playlists and away you go.

I also use, the Onkyo HF player and Foobar 2000 apps when listening via my Samsung Galaxy. The Onkyo doesn't recognise the playlists created by Media Go annoyingly, although the Foobar app does - hence, this is now my go to app for listening on the go through the phone, despite its relative lack of graphics (eg album covers etc).

[richardfinegold]

The iBasso unit certainly works like this. What it does annoyingly do is, when there are more than 9 tracks as separate files on an album, play them in the order 1, 10, 11, 12... 19, 2, 3, 4 etc. which of course can be avoided by adding trailing zeros to numbers less than 10 but you have to actually remember to do that.

IBasso is a new name for me. I gues I could load albums with less than 10 tracks to keep it simple.

[richardfinegold]

Greetings Richard,
I'll quickly give you an idea with three players I had experience with.
Fiio - the early model and my intro to DAP portables. It had to format the micro SD itself which was a pain, and that format didn't subsequently work when I put the card into the A & K which was a real pain. I seem to remember I had to load the cards whilst they were in the player and it was very slow. It didn't like some long file names either. Managed to get around these niggles but it ended up more trouble than it was worth. Good sound for the price though. I believe it's less of a hassle in newer models.
Pioneer XDP-100r, the little brother to the Onkyo. It was easy to drag and drop if the SD card was inserted into the PC. It was noticeably slower if files were transferred via the player. The internal memory was frankly a pain in the ****. Slower to fill and it simply wouldn't have anything to do with dropping half a dozen files across en bloc as a batch, bloody hopeless. It may well be my Heritage Windows 7 and even more Heritage Samsung netbook at fault but it was well nigh impossible. I deleted as many of the useless apps as I could, disabled all the wifi and Bluetooth gizmos and anything I could get rid of. I parted company with it a month ago and, on pressing 'restore' all that electronic bloat ware reappeared! So it probably wasn't deleted in the first place, merely hidden.
A and K - no problems at all either on internal or external memories, drag, drop and forget! It also takes 200gb cards which is handy.
I rip with dbpoweramp at level 8 compression in flac to get smaller files. There's no loss in quality of course. MP3 tag for tidying up contents and artwork and that's the job done.
I'm no Apple whore even though I have an iPhone 5 but the pioneer has certainly put me off android for the foreseeable future. When the XDP first came out I was swayed by those Sabre dacs and the twin card slots. Well, there's certainly other dacs which do exactly the same job just as well.
Just so you know I bought the AK120 Titan when it was being discounted on the South American shopping mall. I've been really pleased with it and it's proved to me that doing just one job, playing music files, is more than sufficient. Any extras simply clutter it all up.
The latest Onkyo/Pioneer, which is smaller, seems to have come in for some criticism regarding its OS as well.

Is the dbpoweramp necessary to rip the files if all I want to transfer are FLAC download files stored on a USB memory stick?
The AK sounds tempting otherwise, as does the Sony that Sir Velo describes. Regrettably I'm leaving for German in a few days and won't get a chance to try any other player beforehand, and I've surrendered in frustration trying to load the Onkyo--'I guess I'll just suffer with iTunes on my phone this time.
Sir Velo, regarding the Sony--it does have a DAC, right?

[Richard Barrett]

IBasso is a new name for me.

I like it, it was my first foray into the hi-res portable player world a few years ago. The sound is excellent but the Android-based user interface is a bit clunky and after all its travels it's beginning to look a bit worn at the corners. I expect I'll be thinking of replacing it at some point though I don't anticipate anything else sounding much better.

[richardfinegold]

I like it, it was my first foray into the hi-res portable player world a few years ago. The sound is excellent but the Android-based user interface is a bit clunky and after all its travels it's beginning to look a bit worn at the corners. I expect I'll be thinking of replacing it at some point though I don't anticipate anything else sounding much better.

I suspect that most of these players are going to sound good, if perhaps slightly different from each other. So then it comes down to ease of use

[Braunschlag]

'Is the dbpoweramp necessary to rip the files if all I want to transfer are FLAC download files stored on a USB memory stick?'

No, you wouldn't need it for that. I only got it as my brother said it worked for him on the initial CD rip and was a reliable tool for the job. It was, and still is.

I also looked at iBasso and they looked good, one of those had two card slots. They certainly stole the show in the earlier days of DAPs and still have a loyal and justified following.
I also suspect they are all pretty similar in sound quality, I simply had a bit of legacy cash to squander so A and K won the day. It sounded pretty much the same as the Pioneer at a third of the price, trickle down technology methinks. I do use it as my main source nowadays having ripped a couple of thousand CDs onto it, in which case the Sony would be a good bet if you were using it for travelling. I did think of a cheaper model for just that, the AK is an expensive bit of titanium to be leaving it behind on a train.

[Sir Velo]

Sir Velo, regarding the Sony--it does have a DAC, right?

It certainly does have its internal DAC and apologies for not making that clear!

As I indicated in an earlier post, the NWZ-A15 is Sony's entry level HiRes portable music player (£150-£200). I use it in a variety of situations but particularly when listening closely it lacks something making the audio sound "compressed", which is where the Mojo comes in for me as an external DAC, basically overriding the Walkman's internal DAC. Sony do produce other HIRes players which can certainly match the other makes for quality but you do pay a premium for its premium products - ie £400 - £1k plus).

The NWZ-A15 also has Sony's annoying volume limiter, which means that when connected to my car's aux port, it gives out feeble volume unless using an external AMP/DAC to beef it up. You have it to have it at maximum volume to be audible, which means RTAs crash in at jet aircraft deafness inducing levels! Having said that, with a 128Gb SD card it provides sufficient storage space for all but the longest overseas trips, and its user interface is as easy to navigate as any on the market. You may also find the sound of sufficient quality, but given its compatibility with high resolution files, its sound disappoints when paired with top of the range hifi or headphones.

[richardfinegold]

It certainly does have its internal DAC and apologies for not making that clear!

As I indicated in an earlier post, the NWZ-A15 is Sony's entry level HiRes portable music player (£150-£200). I use it in a variety of situations but particularly when listening closely it lacks something making the audio sound "compressed", which is where the Mojo comes in for me as an external DAC, basically overriding the Walkman's internal DAC. Sony do produce other HIRes players which can certainly match the other makes for quality but you do pay a premium for its premium products - ie £400 - £1k plus).

The NWZ-A15 also has Sony's annoying volume limiter, which means that when connected to my car's aux port, it gives out feeble volume unless using an external AMP/DAC to beef it up. You have it to have it at maximum volume to be audible, which means RTAs crash in at jet aircraft deafness inducing levels! Having said that, with a 128Gb SD card it provides sufficient storage space for all but the longest overseas trips, and its user interface is as easy to navigate as any on the market. You may also find the sound of sufficient quality, but given its compatibility with high resolution files, its sound disappoints when paired with top of the range hifi or headphones.

That's helpful, thank you. I wasn't thinking of adding an external DAC, but that might be worth a thought, because those devices also improve the sound of a cellphone. of course, that becomes 2 devices that I can potentially lose instead of one.

[richardfinegold]

This inquiry would be for Sir Velo, or anyone else that can help. I bought a Sony Walkman, I think the next model up from the one that you referenced. The initial set up was a breeze but I've run into a problem. I loaded one album, a High resolution download of Andriss Nelsons conducting the Boston Symphony in Wagner and Sibelius, and listened to it for a while, and everything seemed fine. However, every subsequent album that I load doesn't show up on the player's menu. If I reload the album, I get a message telling me on the PC that the folder for the album exists, do I want to replace it? When I check the contents of the player on the PC, the albums are all listed, but they don't show up on the player itself. I tried tech support from the mail order company but it's still early on a Sunday morning here and they aren't answering. I was wondering if anyone had any insight.

[Sir Velo]

This inquiry would be for Sir Velo, or anyone else that can help. I bought a Sony Walkman, I think the next model up from the one that you referenced. The initial set up was a breeze but I've run into a problem. I loaded one album, a High resolution download of Andriss Nelsons conducting the Boston Symphony in Wagner and Sibelius, and listened to it for a while, and everything seemed fine. However, every subsequent album that I load doesn't show up on the player's menu. If I reload the album, I get a message telling me on the PC that the folder for the album exists, do I want to replace it? When I check the contents of the player on the PC, the albums are all listed, but they don't show up on the player itself. I tried tech support from the mail order company but it's still early on a Sunday morning here and they aren't answering. I was wondering if anyone had any insight.

I generally use the proprietary Sony Media Go software to transfer files. Firstly, check to make sure that the files are shown in the "Library" and then select transfer files and the destination device (worth checking this if you have more than one device connected to the PC. I had my Garmin cycle computer plugged in to download some rides and it started to try transfer files to it rather than the Walkman before I checked). You can then see the files being transferred. Then click on the device (still in the Media Go software) and you will see the files on the device. I can honestly say that I've never had a file not transfer properly doing it this way.

[richardfinegold]

I generally use the proprietary Sony Media Go software to transfer files. Firstly, check to make sure that the files are shown in the "Library" and then select transfer files and the destination device (worth checking this if you have more than one device connected to the PC. I had my Garmin cycle computer plugged in to download some rides and it started to try transfer files to it rather than the Walkman before I checked). You can then see the files being transferred. Then click on the device (still in the Media Go software) and you will see the files on the device. I can honestly say that I've never had a file not transfer properly doing it this way.

Thanks. That seems to have done the trick. I had resorted to drag and drop without going through the Sony software step

[Bryn]

Not quite the ideal thread to post this, though it does have some relevance. After waiting nearly 2 months since I ordered it, my Dodocool Hi Res pocket audio player arrived (actually I picked it up from the sorting office where it arrived on Saturday). File transfer is a simple matter of copying and pasting the relevant directories/folders. While it may not be up there with players costing 10 times the price and more, it seems to do a pretty good job with the 96/24 FLACs I have fed it with so far. There is no digital output, so no opportunity to use and external DAC, and though I have yet to try it myself, the line out has received a negative appraisal from an Amazon customer reviewer. I will give it a try myself later this evening. However, I did not buy it with the intention of using it to feed a HiFi system, and it sounds really good, with copious output level to headphones (almost certainly exceeding EU permitted level). It's early days, but so far I am cock-a-hoop with it. The only problem for me is that I paid the pre-sale proce of £49.99.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dodocool-Players-Resolution-Recorder-Playback-Gray/dp/B072XKJRF6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509995712&sr=8-1&keywords=B072XKJRF6&dpID=41ofktUEuCL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

Dodocool, eh? This pigeon is no extinct bird, though it is quite cool.

Fairly detailed review here.