Recommend me a quality MP3 player

[Sedako]

Well, I recently received my new Shure SCL3s, which were a steal at $60. They sound excellent when hooked up to my PC, far better than my old ones. The problem is that I got these headphones to go with my new Zune 120, on which my cheapo Icemat Siberia in-ear headphones sounded alright. Unfortunately, the Shures seems to be too good for the Zune, and anything I play on it sounds terribly flat and dull, and Zune has no EQ to fix this. Most of my music is 320 kbps rips, so it's not a quality issue. I tested the Shures with my friend's Ipod, which sounded great with the EQ set to rock. Being picky about how my music sounds, as I know some of you are, I'm sorry to say that I am most likely going to return the Zune and buy something with better sound.

I need a quality MP3 player with at least 80gb of space and great sound quality. No EQ is needed if the quality is good, but I wouldn't refuse one. The ability to play movies is a plus. I would like to avoid the Ipod if possible, and try to keep the price at $250 or below. If the capacity is a problem, go ahead and recommend something else. Thanks for the help.

 

[Krynn72]

Maybe the jack is messed up on the Zune? It seems weird to me that a headset would sound bad with it. I have a Zune 120 and my headsets sound perfectly fine in it. If you're going to look for another player though, I'd suggest looking into the Creative line of mp3 players. I had a Zen Vision M before this zune and it was awesome. I'll probably go back to Creative after my Zunes run its course.

 

[Sedako]

It sounds as if the treble is set to the minimum, and the bass is barely audible too. I just tried my old headphones on it again, and they sound much better on it. I wish I could find someone else with a Zune to test and see if it really is just a defect.

 

[Warped]

I saw at a local walmart a Sansa 8GB MP3 player with FM transmitter built in, earbuds, charging kit, voice recorder, tiny lcd screen, a built in belt clip and a few other features for $49! imo thats better than ipod shuffle because you can at least what your song is.

Key Features & Benefits:
# 8 GB capacity
Stores up to 2000 four-minute MP3 songs recorded at 128 kbps or 12 two-hour movies recorded as MPEG-4 files at 512 kbps
# 2.4" color LCD screen, 320 x 240 pixels
Shows song title, artist, album, genre and more in up to 65,000 colors
# Versatile audio playback options
Supports MP3, WMA, WAV, non-DRM AAC, MPEG4, H.264 and JPEG file formats
# Built-in FM tuner
Offers 20 station presets and you can record your favorite broadcasts, too
# Audio recording capability
Records voice with the built-in microphone
# Interfaces
Provides a fast USB 2.0 port for connection to a computer and a microSDHC memory card slot for an optional card
# Rechargeable lithium-ion battery
Plays up to 35 hours of music or 7 hours of video on a single charge

 

[Sedako]

I've been recommended to try an amp, as the Shures have a higher impedance than the Icemats, which may explain why it doesn't sound as good. I'm going to pick this up and see if it helps before trying anything else:

 

[3ssence]

When i got a set of Shure SE210's to replace my old Sennheiser CX300's that i used on my Sansa MP3 player, i found exactly the same, the player was suddenly exposed for the relative lack of quality that it possessed, which found me changing my MP3 player straight away. I bought one of these on the recommendation of the Trusted Reviews team:

http://www.sony.co.uk/product/nws-a-series/nwz-a818

It really brings out the quality of the Shure's, music is so much more dynamic and the clarity so much better. I'd highly recommend one of the recent Sony players, although they have updated mine slightly, but it is essentially the same, just a slightly different design and more storage:

http://www.sony.co.uk/product/nws-s-series/nwz-s639f

Just my few cents

 

[Asus]

You probably need to see if there are players that have better headphone amps built-in. If the amp the player uses isn't powerful enough you may not hear all the sounds from the music because some detail is lost.

I have some $100 Sures and they sound OK on my Ipod. But my brother's headphones you would need better equipment on these portable players.

Your $60 Sure's may only need a little more amplification to drive them and I doubt you'd need to go this extreme but I know people who buy really expensive headphones and have an iPod that they don't use the headphone jack on the top. It is lower quality than what is possible to get out of a player because of the amp and DAC built in. So they skip the iPods amp/dac equipment and use their own. They usually get an adapter to plug into the bottom of the ipod in order to use the digital out pins. Sound will be not be amplified and therefore lower volume directly out of the adapter. Then they get a headphone amp.
But then you are not as portable.

 

[Lucid]

I've had my Generation 1 iPod Nano for about 4/5 years now, it's been dropped, stepped on, run over and it's not failed me yet... damn resilient little gadgets.

 

[-Psy-]

iRiver Clix 2. Comes with an EQ. Never had any problems with it.

 

[Sedako]

I'll let you guys know how the amp works out. I've seen a few people mention that the SCL3's do benefit from the E5, so we'll see.

 

[Krynn72]

Man, better not walk around with something like that in an airport or New York. People will mistake it for some kind of IED.

 

[Sedako]

Finally got the amp, and I'm glad I did. The music is a bit more clear and the bass is really punchy now. I'm surprised how compact it is, which is nice because I don't have to sacrifice much pocket space. For a Chinese made device is really doesn't feel cheap at all.