Portable Music Players

[stanalexis]

Hi everybody,

I'd like to start a new poll about portable music players. Real ones, not fancy (though immensely practical) ones from Apple.

I am the happy owner of a Hifiman HM-601 magically paired with a Bowers and Wilkins P5 headphone.

http://www.head-direct.com/product_detail.php?p=98

The software is very buggy, the interface sucks, it's twice bigger and heavier than a Classic iPod, but the sound is just amazing.

What do you guys have ?

[Shaggy_NL]

I'm only using two portable MiniDisc recorders to play discs who I record with my normal Sony ES Deck. I don't own any portable machine that play rubbish from a PC, like MP3 and that kind of formats that rapes the sound of good music.

They are a:

• Sony MZ-N1
• Sony MZ-N910

I'm using it with a Audio-Technica ATH-RE70. Official a portable headphone so the impedance is 42Ω, so that's handy for the portable device. It's from the so-called Retro-Face series. Looks pretty vintage and that's a plus to me. (and yes, it sounds also pretty decent)

[Gibraltar]

I know you said no Apple, but I use a 4th gen iPod nano with Shure SE530s and the sound is actually quite good! The sharper tone of the 4th gen nano complements the slightly rolled off highs of the Shures perfectly, and you can't beat the portability.

As for Real portables, I have a small collection of Sony Discmans from the golden years...D-350, D-303 (with wireless remote kit!), D-J50, D-311. These don't get much play time anymore, but if I ever get a bigger apartment they'll definitely be on display somewhere

[costellom5]

I use a Sony X series(1060B I think,the 32GB version).It has noise cancelling which works and the headphones are quite good.On the go it sounds great.I tried this player and the ipod touch with the same headphones (Sony MDR-90EX)and the Sony sounded a lot better.
The player you linked I've never heard of it,and for that price it should be pretty good.I paid for mine 279€.You must remember that it's gotta be light,all the rest is up to you.

[4fxtwin]

Besides the ubiquitous iPod - Gen5/Video running Rockbox of course! - I have:

Aiwa TPS-30: Apparently the world's first personal stereo recorder but I think Sony would have something to say about that as their TCM-100 Pressman had a couple of years' lead on it. Lovely little cassette machine though.

Technics SL-XP5: Unfortunately missing its PSU but in almost mint condition with its (heavy and non-operational) battery pack and carry case. Very early portable CD and built to a standard unheard of nowadays.

Sony MZ-RH1: The daddy when it comes to Minidisc. Unbelievably cute design and second-to-none performance both in playback and recording. I have bootlegged many a live performance with this little gem and the results are outstanding.

I suppose I could class my Sony SL-F1/PCM-F1 combo as 'luggable' too