I’m a huge music fan. I pretty much have music playing all the time, in some form. As such, I like my MP3 player. Like many music lovers, I became enamored with the concept of having my entire music library at my fingertips at any time, so the MP3 player as a concept really appealed to me when they began to appear with larger capacities several years ago.
However, as a Linux user, there are some hurdles in choosing a portable digital music device, which limits one’s options, and then there is the simple fact that manufacturers have radically cut down on the products offered, which limits one’s options even more.
This is my discussion of that plight.
My current MP3 player, its inevitable death, and my requirements for a new one
I have a great MP3 player I bought a few years ago. It’s an ARCHOS Gmini XS202s. I only have two issues with it. First of all, it only has a 20 GB hard drive, and since I like to carry my whole music library with me, that’s a big limiting factor.
Secondly, it’s beginning to get up there in age. I use it a lot, and since it’s hard drive based (and therefore has moving parts), that means I’m swiftly moving into a band of time that almost certainly designates its eventual demise as a useful device. It’s only a matter of time before the thing goes belly-up, and I’ll need to replace it.
So as a result, I’ve been looking around for a suitable replacement, and I haven’t been having much luck.
ARCHOS no longer makes this particular model, and worse yet, they don’t make anything even remotely like it. Why don’t I just buy something else from ARCHOS then, you ask? They don’t make anything that meets my requirements.
See, I don’t really consider myself that picky about MP3 players, but it’s getting damned hard — if not impossible — to find one that doesn’t suck in some unacceptable way. You wouldn’t think this to be that difficult a task, but there it is. My requirements are pretty straightforward.
1. It MUST be platform agnostic.
This is the most important one, and, one would think, easy to accomplish. All an MP3 player is, after all, is just a portable storage device that has the capacity to play music in one or more formats (MP3, WMA, AAC, et cetera). Portable storage devices are just that… either flash based or hard drive based, usually USB, and as such have no need to be specific to any one platform, be it Windows, Linux, Mac, or whatever.
However, this rules out the most ubiquitous device. I’m speaking, of course, of Apple’s iPod (and the variations Apple makes). Apple has designed into the iPod a set of massive defects that I find intolerable. It’s a portable hard drive, in essence, but you can’t load music onto it without the use of a proprietary application, or in the very least, without going through a process of hacks and workarounds that really seems excessive to me.
I find iPods, therefore, to be offensive to my sensibilities, and I refuse to purchase a product that is that maliciously platform bigoted. I don’t feel that I should have to boot into Windows just to load music on the damned thing — particularly since my current MP3 player can simply be plugged in, mounted automatically as a USB hard drive, and have music dragged-and-dropped onto it, even while running Slackware. Apple went out of their way to prevent people from doing this, and has therefore ruled themselves out as an option for me.
A corollary to this requirement is the simple fact that DRM cannot be integrated into the device in any way. Doing so, like the iPod not being platform agnostic, is simply an intentional defect, and I have qualms about paying money for a device that’s intentionally defective in any way, particularly in a way that is that offensive. Obviously, this rules out Microsoft’s Zune, but you guys already knew I wasn’t considering buying a Zune, right? Seriously.
Built-in DRM plus the fact that it only works on Windows also rules out Sony’s Walkman as well, but, like the Zune, I never seriously considered a Sony product for this purpose anyway, so that point is moot.
2. It must have a native storage capacity of 40 GB or more
I don’t consider this to be unreasonable. A quick Google search turns up tons of results for portable digital music devices that can hold more than 40 GB of music on them. Heck, even the garden variety iPod is a whopping 120 GB. So I know it’s possible. Note that in this requirement I say native storage capacity. I know that many devices out there can do the SD or MicroSD card thing, which is all well and good. But I don’t want to have to juggle around cards to load the music I want. I want it all to be on the device all the time, all at once. Expansion via MicroSD cards is fine, but it has to be 40 GB without it before I’ll consider it an option.
This requirement rules out most (if not all) flash memory based devices, however, leaving only hard drive based devices as options for me. I don’t have a problem with this, conceptually. After all, my current MP3 player is hard drive based, and it works great. It just needs a larger capacity. But when you look at what’s available for hard drive based players that AREN’T iPods, you start running afoul of my third requirement.
3. It must have a battery life of 10 hours or more
My current MP3 player is four years old, and gets what I would classify as “heavy” use. Despite this, and the fact that it’s hard drive based, it still gets around 12 hours of battery life out of a single charge. I am continually amazed at how long I can carry this thing around and listen to my favorite music on it without having to worry about it dropping dead on me. I only charge it every couple of days or so, and even then, a lot of times it still has some battery life left when I plug it in.
So to me, a viable replacement should be able to handle a minimum of 10 hours of life on a single charge.
Note that I don’t care about video in a portable device, so I couldn’t care less about a big, full-color, power-hungry display. In fact, the smaller and more basic, the better in my opinion. My current device has a pretty no-frills display, and that’s fine by me… I’m not using it to look at photos or watch movies or anything. Just listen to music.
This is good for the battery requirement, because when you take the biggest power drain away from a device (a big, backlit, full-color display), battery life increases dramatically, even on hard drive based players.
Next page: So what’s the problem?
The Linux Critic 
Look at Cowon iAudio. Linux compatible and they play ogg and flac 😉
I did a quick Amazon search for “Cowon iAudio”. Three questions:
1) All of those have huge, full-color screens. How’s battery life?
EDIT: Okay, according to one Amazon review, “18 hours music, 8 hour movie battery life”, which is impressive. Is your experience congruent with this?
2) I haven’t found one yet that has more than 32 GB. Do they make any in the 40 GB and up range that you know of?
EDIT: (jeez, I need to research this crap before commenting, don’t I?) I just found this, which is 80GB… much better! But I’m still a bit concerned about the physical size and battery life on this model, particularly because of that massive screen.
3) The physical size of the device itself seems a bit on the big size. Do you know if there’s a smaller-model (physically)?
Thanks for the comment, I hadn’t looked at Cowon at all, so this is another possibility!
I’ve owned a couple of Cowon MP3 players and I really like them. Sound quality is good & battery life is excellent. I like them also because I believe them to be a Linux friendly company. Currently I’ve got the iAudio 7 which would do everything you need – except I think the max memory is 16GB. Battery life on that particular player is great – at least 30 hours I would say. They do make some players with memory slots – the D2 is one example, though maybe the screen on that model may be too big.
Yeah, I really like the look and design of the Cowon players, and they get consistently stellar reviews.
I just wish they made something that could hold 40 GB or more.
My current player is 20 GB and I’m constantly having to delete stuff from it in order to copy other stuff to it. I just wish I could find a player that had enough space to fit everything so I wouldn’t have to bother worrying about space (that also meets my other two requirements).
Maybe by the time I can afford to buy a replacement, there will be someone making something that fits that, but I’m not hopeful at this point. 😦
I have an iPod because it’s compatible with my car stereo, such that I can control it through the stereo, it’s not just a line-in as with all other MP3 players.
My GF has a mac so I have had some experience of iTunes. I hate it with a passion, it’s slow and not particularly intuitive.
I use solely linux and to load up my iPod I use ‘gtkpod’ fantastic piece of software, especially as it doesn’t try to do anything clever if you don’t want it to.
I’ve seen a lot of good testimonials about GtkPod… I just have problems with it, conceptually. I shouldn’t have to go to those lengths. Also, I hate the iPod interface with a passion.
So, I still reject the iPod on philosophical grounds (like the Zune… there are ways of getting a Zune to work on Linux, but I reject the Zune on principle as well), and I’ve never been overly fond of the actual way iPods work anyway.
That said, you never know. I might just say “screw it!” and end up with an iPod someday. I just hope it doesn’t come to that. 🙂
I use the Creative Nomad Zen Xtra Jukebox – 60gb. Works great and good battery life.
I’ve run across those. I’m assuming you’re talking about these, right?
The price is right, though they look a bit bulky. Plus, aren’t those more or less dead products? Are they even still available new?
I really like the iRiver players (http://www.iriver.com/). They are pretty cheap, but they have a good interface and play Ogg Vorbis and FLAC. I use the E100 model.
They are OS agnostic, just copy files to the vfat partition and its internal database re-freshes the music list.
-c
Thanks, Chris, I’ll have to check them out. I haven’t given them a serious look for a few years; it sounds like they’re worth some scrutiny. 🙂
Just looking at their page, I think the E100 is still the only model which supports FLAC..
The only thing I don’t like about the E100, is that the buttons are a little clicky. But you get used to that and for me, who has all their music in FLAC, it’s simply my favourite player ever 🙂
-c
Well, FLAC is nice, but it’s not one of my dealbreaker requirements. However, I question the usefulness of any portable digital music player that supports FLAC but has less than 60GB of storage. Doesn’t make much sense to me.
Which iRiver model has greater than 40GB capacity?
Yeah I see what you’re saying, but for me, the 8GB e100 can hold almost 300 songs in FLAC which is more than enough.
My music stays on my server and I copy stuff I want to listen to across to it on the road.
Then again, all my music is ripped from audio CD, so it tends to be easier to pick what I want.
Not sure about larger models.. I look for FLAC support first 😉
-c
Yeah, I just have the notion in my head that my next portable music device should actually be better than or be at least comparable to the (now four+ year old) one I have (i.e., it should be able to store more music, have at least the same battery life, etc.). I just can’t see going to a device that stores LESS music than my current one (which at 20GB is already insufficient for my needs).
That’s what ticked me off so much about ARCHOS. They used to have a couple of great lines of MP3 player products, and now all they have is low-capacity crap. Like this: ARCHOS MP3 players
Not a one that can hold more than 16GB of music. WTF? They used to make lots of devices that held 20GB and up!
I really honestly have to wonder WTF they’re thinking. As I mentioned in my writeup today, even the basic standard Apple iPod is 120GB out of the gate. How do these non-Apple companies expect to compete?
Heh. Sorry, BTW. I’m not ranting at you, just in general. This has me really perplexed these days. It seems like asking for non-proprietary MP3 players that can hold 40GB of music and run for 10 hours on a charge is asking far too much.
Which, considering even how much technology has advanced in the 4 years or so since I bought my last MP3 player, is really, really sad. I should have LOTS of options in that arena… not NO options. 😦
I have a Creative Zen 32gb. OK it does not meet your 40gb limit, but i find it awesome. I have Sennheiser neckband headphones (PMX 60) as i do not like loud noises next to my eardrums. Bad for you hearing in the long run. It is solid state, a very big plus. battery life is quoted at up to 36 hours. I have not timed it, but mine rarely needs charging.
The sound quality of the combination is brilliant. Under Linux Gnomad2 works reliably as a file transfer program. It only supports mps, aac (DRM Free) and wma. You sometimes have to run Gnomad2 as root the first time you use it.
I ride a bike and my old iRiver H340 eventually died from being bounced around, not an issue with the Zen. The H340 had RockBox installed and worked well, but it was starting to show it’s age.
There are two version, the Zen and the Zen-Xfi. I have the Zen. With high quality earbuds they work better with all the fancy sound processing off. I also have Sennheiser CX300 II earbuds and they require the EQ to be off to sound right. The extra money for the X-Fi version gets you higher quality buds in the box, but I use Sennheisers anyway.
All my music is now mp3 at the highest VBR setting. I used to use ogg, but Creative refuse to support it.
Lasly, the Zen is the size of a fat credit card and weighs almost nothing.
I also have a simple cable to an AUX input in the car. I do not need a car charger, it lasts longer on battery than I any trip I could drive.
Wow, great comment, thanks for the recommendation. I think among the various devices I’ve looked at in my extensive searching, if I were to buy one today, it would probably be the Creative Zen 32GB player. It has the most (and the most consistently positive) reviews on Amazon, and one thing that it seems to get raves about is battery life, which is always a concern for me.
A couple of questions, if you could answer for me. I notice that it has an SD slot… is that standard SD or microSD? Do you use yours, and if so, do you notice any difference in power consumption if the device is reading songs off the SD card? And is “SD” different from “SDHC”?
Also, regarding loading the device. When you say “Gnomad2 works reliably as a file transfer program”, are you saying that you use that to sync it, or is an actual program necessary to load songs onto it? i.e., I ask because I would really rather just plug the device in, open up my regular file manager (usually XFE or Konqueror) and copy+paste to it, like I do now on my ARCHOS player.
Hard drive based portable player seem like a waste of money to me. Why have so much music with you? Are you moving to a deserted island for summer vacation? You risk losing it or having it stolen. And it’s much more susceptible to damage and have less battery life. Nothing like a flash based one, with Rockbox installed.
I want all of my music with me. That way I can listen to whatever I want, wherever I want. And ANY portable electronic device could be lost or stolen. I’m not sure what your point is.
I’d love a flash based / solid state one. Problem is, they don’t seem to make them larger capacity than 32 GB, which is somewhat shy of my 40 GB requirement.
The iPod is supported by RhythmBox and Banshee quite well actually. Banshee can even sync your video library to it.
About the only MP3 player you really want to avoid is the Zune, but not even Windows users are buying that.
I’ve read that people have had some success getting iPods to work with Amarok too. However, I don’t want to “sync” my music player at all. I just want to copy and paste files to it and then be able to play them on the device without any sort of application needed to “sync” it. The iPod has a major defect in that this relatively simple thing — which pretty much every other player out there can do — doesn’t work. That’s my main beef with the iPod, and it’s enough to keep me from buying one.
I sympathise with your rejection of iPods (I got a Sansa Fuze instead of a Nano for that reason), but I’ve got to say, your requirements would really be best met by an iPod classic. I did a quick check of weight vs. storage capacity, and the only serious contender turned out to be the Archos 5. But where the Archos 5 120GB weighs in at 300 grams, the iPod classic 120GB is a lightweight at 140 grams (a reminder: your old GMINI only weighs 118 gr.).
That’s quite sad, really; it seems the money is in flash-players these days. Perhaps you should just get a flash-player with an expansion slot and wait for 32-GB-cards to become cheaper.
On the other hand, AFAIK at least Banshee, and I think also Rhythmbox, support newest iPods. Banshee for one simply offers to replace an iPod’s encrypted database with its own the first time you plug it in and from that time on you can use it.
Yeah, I hate how big the Archos 5 is. I really probably should list a 4th requirement… my MP3 player should be no bigger than a standard iPod for size, or at least not very much bigger.
Yeah, I’m thinking that might actually be what I do. I’m not ready to buy yet (I need a regular full time job again first before I can afford to), but when I do buy, it’s likely to be a flash based one, which kind of ticks me off, since the storage capacity on those is inferior.
Right, but as I’ve mentioned, I still reject iPods out of hand for the rather major defect of not allowing music to be loaded by a simple copy+paste. That’s simply too big a design flaw for me to not get angry about every time I loaded something to it, on principle. 🙂
To me, that’s incredibly insulting, a lock-in offense on the same order as Microsoft commits regularly. It’s such a huge defect I have major trouble actually paying money for an iPod. If Apple were to fix this, I’d buy an iPod without hesitation.
Why not get an iPod and put Rockbox on it?
I shouldn’t have to “fix” a device that costs that much, just to get it to work in a reasonable manner. That, to me, would be like buying a beautiful new car and then taking it to a mechanic straight from the dealer so that I can put an actual working engine in it so I can drive it.
Sorry. Can’t bring myself to do that. I’d put up with a much lesser car rather than validate that as a viable option.
The SD slot is a full SD slot, compatible cards are listed on the Creative site. They list up to 8gb, so it supports SDHC. It reads a 4gb Lexar card I have OK.
But it is not as useful as it first seems. The card does not become an extension of the library. You can import photo files from the card, or play music files from the card using a simple file browser. It would be great if you could configure it to be an extension So it essentially becomes two libraries, controlled differently.
I have not used the slot much so I cannot comment on battery drain.
Gnomad2 is a two pane file manager with the player on the right and your computer on the left. You just highlight the file(s) you want and press an arrow to send to the player. Simple and effective. I believe you can use Amarok to connect and sync, but I have 80gbs on my computer so I do not sync.
I hope that explains it clearly enough. It is a great 32gb player that works with Linux. It is not drag and drop with Konqueror, but Gnomad2 works well. The SD slot is OK, but not as useful as it first seems.
Thanks for the comment, Greg
Ah, ok. That greatly limits its usefulness in my opinion.
Ugh. I take it that it probably wouldn’t work to copy files via command line either? Like via a script that I have that I currently use to great effectiveness?
That kinda ticks me off, and it’s a potential dealbreaker for me. Yes, it “works in Linux”, but it’s an unnecessary design defect, and it’s at the heart of my #1 requirement. I shouldn’t require any kind of special program to load music onto the device, at all. If I can’t copy+paste, there’s something wrong with it.
Why do companies make stuff like that? I’ve never understood that. 😦
If that’s the case, I might as well buy an iPod and just use GtkPod to load it. At least then I’d have the storage capacity I need.
Seems your best choices would be the aforementioned Creative 32GB or the Sansa View 32GB then, which cost about the same (~ 200 USD).
The big plus of the Creative is that it takes up normal-sized SD(HC) cards, which are less pricy than the microSD(HC) cards the Sansa demands. The Creative weighs 65, the Sansa 80 grams, so both are ridiculously light-weight. The Creative’s screen is 0.1 inch bigger…
The Creative also plays back AAC files, while the View does not. The only thing the Sansa has going for it is its slightly smaller size. Well, that and that the click-wheel is far superior to the Creative’s four-directional rocker. This last point would be enough for me to seriously meditate about the decision as I LOVE the handling of my Sansa Fuze… ^_^
Whoops, just read the bit about the Creative’s handling of SD-cards. Well, for the Sansas it really acts as a storage expansion – very, very useful indeed!
Yeah, that actually makes me wonder about the SanDisk Sansas again. Hmmm….
And BTW, the Sansa devices know two modes: MTP and MSC – with latter one they behave like mass-storage devices, so your preferred method of drag-and-drop would work.
Ah, okay, I get ya. My current ARCHOS player has a setting like that too, presumably so you can “sync” it with an application. I turned that off as soon as I got it, so I don’t even think about it. Do you know if the Creative 32GB devices work that way as well?
It would seem it doesn’t. http://im2mikejones.blogspot.com/2007/10/creative-zen-8gb.html
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2008/01/sandisk-sansa-view-review.php
“The sound quality is good but not outstanding like the Sansa Clip [and Fuze], it is however a big improvement over the e200 series. The low end its nice and filled out much more so than the e200, but the highs are a bit lacking in that they are not as open as they should be. The bottom line is that the View can run with many of the above average players in terms of sound quality, helping to shake the Sansa’s bad reputation for sound quality.”
My choice of the Zen rested on one and only one criteria. I read all the reviews and when coupled with good headphones or buds nothing can compare to the Zen’s playback quality, and that includes iPods. The fact that I can load the music using Linux is the only other factor I cared about.
The Sansa is certainly Linux friendly as are the Cowans. I have had an iRiver and that also worked well with Linux.
Depends on what is important to you and how good your ears are.
cheers
Thanks, Greg. I still have to ask though… like the SanDisk Sansa also discussed here, does the Zen have an “MSC” mode that just makes it behave like a mass storage device, so I can copy+paste files onto it, or do it via command line?
For more info it’s worthwhile to check out the Sansa forums: http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board?board.id=view
The ‘firmware-update’ is especially interesting because unlike other companies Sansa add new functionality (like that MSC mode) via firmware updates (which can be done by dragging-and-dropping a file onto the device, too).
That’s good to know, thanks for the link!
The Zens are MTP and cannot be switched. I just plugged mine in and fired up Amarok and it appears as a device without any configuration. You can add/remove songs from inside Amarok.
That is neat for me.
Yep, that’s a dealbreaker for me. Too bad. I was actually leaning toward the Zen until that. 😦
I’ve run a Rockbox-powered Sansa e280 for almost 3 years now and never had any issues in any OS with its usage. They just added HID drivers to Rockbox, so you can use the physical controls on your player to control your media software now – if that’s your thing.
IMHO being hung up on hdd devices over ssd devices is a mild form of douchebaggery – since many hdd devices can have their drives replaced by 64,128GB CF or 32,64GB SDHC cards. As soon as SDXC takes off it will be a moot point – you could just pop your 2TB microSDXC in the slot on an older Sansa and be good forever – Rockbox will most certainly support newer flash standards than the OEMs. They have in the past added SDHC support to devices over a year in advance of the OEMs.
My advice is to pick up a Sansa e280 (8GB internal flash) and a 32GB microSDHC when they become available (or just a pair of 16GBs), Rockbox it, and voila you are set…
Full flash memory, 40GBs of storage, 24hrs battery life, support for virtually all file formats, extensive sound control, superior sound quality to the majority of other players, easy customization of settings and UI, etc.
Use RockboxUtility to make the process idiot-proof.
Where do you get that I’m hung up on hdd devices? I would actually prefer solid state, because it usually means much less power consumption. But I want a device that has a minimum of 40GB natively, and I haven’t found a solid state device yet that does.
Actually, what I’ll probably end up doing (unless a better product becomes available by the time I’m ready to buy) is buying a 32GB SanDisk Sansa View and as big a microSD card as I can find.
I don’t like the click-wheel interface at all (and I’ve seen videos of usage with this model, so I know how it works), but I can probably put up with that since I can expand its storage pretty seamlessly with a microSD card to exceed my 40GB requirement, it’s platform agnostic, so I can just use it regardless of what OS I’m running on my computer, and it allegedly has great battery life for music playback. It’s still more of a compromise on native storage capacity than I’m happy with, but the price is right, so I won’t feel too bad about buying something a lot better if such a device becomes available a year or two after I buy this SanDisk device.
zhab,
Can the Sansa e280 handle large (meaning >16gb) microsd cards? I’ve read some reviews of users complaining that it couldn’t recognize more than 2 gb microsd cards.
I just found the answer to my own question on the rockbox faq page http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/SansaFAQ
“All standard microSD cards up to 2GB work with both Sansa and Rockbox firmwares. The newer microSD SDHC cards up to 32GB (when available) will only work with Rockbox firmware.”
So the sansa e280 + rockbox + a 32gb microsd (when available) will meet the 40 gb requirement.
Huh… actually, that’s good to know. Thanks for the heads up. 🙂
Hello, I know that I am resurecting an old post but I was seaching the same thing as you. I finally found out the Cowon X7. Touch screen, ~100 hours advertised on music, hard disk 160 go, read flac and ape files. http://www.cowonglobal.com/.
I still haven’t bought it because it’s not currently in stock but I plan to.
That thing’s physically enormous though… that’s even bigger than my phone (a Samsung Instinct). Ugh. Might as well just use my phone…
I’m not overly fond of touch screen devices when it comes to MP3 players. They necessitate having to stop what you’re doing and look at the device in order to do things on it (as opposed to something with physical buttons, which I can skip songs on, pause, stop, play, just by reaching into my pocket).
I’m really glad my old Archos player is (so far) still functioning; I still haven’t found a thing with which to replace it.
Not to bash your suggestion, mind you. I appreciate the comment. I just wish the X7 were about half as big, physically.
I guess I probably should have added “physical size” to my original requirements. It shouldn’t be any bigger than a “standard” iPod.
And while I dislike touchscreens on mp3 players, I could put up with one if I could find something that met my other requirements. But I’d rather not.