DAP for physical acitivities with good sound, UMS and running on batteries

[aliquis]

First I put this in my SigmaTel3600 thread but it was so very off-topic so I'll move it here instead:

K. Is this forum run by them or am I allowed to talk about other products aswell?

I want an MP3-player with awesome audio quality running on AA or AAA batteries which must have UMS support. Without a radio chances are I won't consider it and if it plays ogg and got all the nice stuff the iAudio players seems to have like bookmarks, repeast a-b, playlists and so on that is good.

I've started to look at the iRiver T10 but later found out the audio quality wasn't that great, I then started to read up on audio chips and one page said the SigmaTel where of lower quality than the Philips chips.

So that kind of scared me of the iA U2 and iA 5 but they seem to have nice menus and options and the iA 5 looks real nice. I then found out one could still get the iRiver IFP-799 in Sweden but the menus and functions on that didn't seemed as nice as on the iAudios.

Here in Sweden Meizu is known as a high-end brand aswell and they have players based on philips and sigmatel chips, but I'm worried the firmware aren't as good (but the E3 for example seems to have a nice menu, bookmarks, repeat, ...) and they doesn't play ogg (the M6 will do.)

I understand that the new SigmaTel chips are supposed to have a better audio quality so then I expected that iAudio might use them and in that case I could get the player I want with a nice chip within.
Samsung uses them already but their player uses lithium-batteries, doesn't play ogg, got no radio. But the interface seems nice.

What do you know about the Telechips? The U3 uses one of them doesn't it? Also I was told that the Meizu M6 uses the same one as the iRiver U10. How are the audio quality of those compared to others?

M6:
Telechips W8731L 200MHz basic frequency
130MHz DSP based on ARM9
Wolfson W8731

Does you/anyone else know of a player which might match what I'm looking for?
Preferably not that expensive either since I have no idea how much better they might be compared to say Sandisks cheap players.

Also can one go out running, inlines, do workouts at the gym and such with the players with a small hdd/cf or should one only consider flash based players for that?

Quite off topic and it's ok to move it to another thread

(Also I read that a chinese had bought the Meizu E3c in china for almost 1/3 of the price it cost here. I guess it might be similair or atleast 2 times more here for the iAudios and iRivers )

[notguilty]

G3 1GB or 2GB? If you want better SQ, tack a real amp on it.

[aliquis]

Originally Posted by notguilty

G3 1GB or 2GB? If you want better SQ, tack a real amp on it.

Because it got better battery life than the iAudio 5 or what? (And better than the iRiver aswell.)

I guess what I really are looking for is a G3 with updated chip?

I'll read up on it.

[608zz]

The G3 is the absolute best device available that fits your criteria. The effects known as BBE and Mach3Bass make it better than the iRiver. There's only 1 thing to be discouraged about the Sigmatel STMP-3520, and that's the quirk that limits the storage to 650 files & 50 folders. For capacities under 1.5GB, you most likely wouldn't experience the file limit.

I am defininately looking for a G3 with an updated chip (and more flash memory to go along with it). However, if Cowon were to modify the existing G3 design to have an enclosed slot for SD-cards, that would be the absolute king, as far as my needs are concerned - No more waiting for higher capacities, just buy more cards (that consistantly become exponentially less expensive).

Comparing the G3 with the i5:
• G3 has better battery life, due to the bigger battery.
• G3 has "better" navigation controls (well, better for me, but maybe not better for everyone). It's a joystick, so should be familiar to eveyone.

[aliquis]

Originally Posted by 608zz

The G3 is the absolute best device available that fits your criteria. The effects known as BBE and Mach3Bass make it better than the iRiver. There's only 1 thing to be discouraged about the Sigmatel STMP-3520, and that's the quirk that limits the storage to 650 files & 50 folders. For capacities under 1.5GB, you most likely wouldn't experience the file limit.

I am defininately looking for a G3 with an updated chip (and more flash memory to go along with it). However, if Cowon were to modify the existing G3 design to have an enclosed slot for SD-cards, that would be the absolute king, as far as my needs are concerned - No more waiting for higher capacities, just buy more cards (that consistantly become exponentially less expensive).

Comparing the G3 with the i5:
• G3 has better battery life, due to the bigger battery.
• G3 has "better" navigation controls (well, better for me, but maybe not better for everyone). It's a joystick, so should be familiar to eveyone.

I only found 256MB G3 in Sweden, amazon.co.uk or similair might carry a larger one thought.
I'm not intrested in weird settings which change the music, so I don't know how much I would care for mach3bass, the only function which seems intresting is MP enhance if it works.

[608zz]

Originally Posted by aliquis

I only found 256MB G3 in Sweden, amazon.co.uk or similair might carry a larger one thought.
I'm not intrested in weird settings which change the music, so I don't know how much I would care for mach3bass, the only function which seems intresting is MP enhance if it works.

Well I've never ordered anything from Sweden, I just offered info based on my own experience. The G3 is produced in a max capacity of 1GB. The effects that I mentioned are not "weird" at all, they're well regarded. BBE is implimented in some devices by other companies (Cowon pays a fee for it) such as car stereos and seems to be appreciated there. I won't try to explain what it does exactly, I just know that I use it. What Mach3Bass does is lower the volume of everything but the bass. It's quite effective in decent bass enhancement, which is nice for the physical activities that I do, which tend to be outdoors, with fitness headphones (e.g. not the best quality available), occasionally with some motor vehicle traffic mixed in. These effects go in steps from 0-10, allowing precisely the amount of effect that your music "needs" (and it will need it to a certain extent, since the low capacity of the device basically requires lossy music files). Unfortunately none of Cowon's flash devices go higher than 2GB. I wish they would impliment an enclosed SD-slot for expansion. The MP Enhance is the one effect that is only On-Off (so more "weird" to me than the others - though I do use it also).

If no device from Cowon seems suitable (or available) to you, you should at least consider devices that support OGG playback. That there will be a better audio improvement over any flash device that is limited to mp3, wma, or acc.