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I was wondering...what do you consider the best sounding MP3 player?
I've been using an Iriver IHP-140 since 2004. Back then it was the only alternative to the Ipod. In reviews they actually
praised the Iriver to be the best sounding MP3 player.



So it's 2011 now and I STILL use my Iriver IHP-140 (with Rockbox firmware). A couple of days ago I ordered a Cowon J3 which is
- according to reviews - supposed to be one of the current best sounding mp3 players...better than the Ipod Classic or Ipod Touch.
Well....I received it and did some extensive testing. Of course I was curious and compared the sound of the Cowon with the
Iriver (neutral setting, 320 kbps track, Sennheiser PX200 headphones). To my surprise the Cowon didn't sound as good.
There are some bass frequencies which you can hear with the Iriver but not with the Cowon. Apart from that there's another
difference ...well...the Iriver sounds warmer...more dynamic. The Cowon J3 sounds more aggressive...less dynamic.
So to my ears the reference player of 2004 still sounds better...I might return the Cowon.

I think the best MP3 player is one that playes wav files. They're handy, and serve a purpose, but I don't think high-fidelity applies when you're listening to MP3 files, at any resolution. I use a Sansa clip which seems to sound okay, for what it's worth.

I don't have it with me at the moment so I don't have the model # but the little Sony I got about four years ago just blows the ipod out of the water, sonically. The ability to simply drag and drop files is also a big plus...no itunes to mess with!! And it came with a pretty nice sounding pair of buds. I mainly listen through the car stereo. DSOP; I'm pretty sure this unit will play WAV. You just can't fit as much on the unit due to the file size. It also holds Mp4 video files as well.

I wish my car had a way for me to plug my MP3 player into the sound system. I'm sure all new cars have this built in now.

DSOP if your car is one with a cassette player this will do the trick:

http://www.amazon.com/Philips-G2G300-Ph ... 891&sr=8-1

My friend's car has a CD player but no AUX input and he has a device called a "Parrot" which he uses to plug in his ipod to his sound system.

No cassette player.

They have one that broadcasts over radio as well, but you can always take it in to a car stereo shop and have an 8th" jack installed. You'll have a wire hanging out, but you'll get to use your MP3.

john lamb wrote:They have one that broadcasts over radio as well, but you can always take it in to a car stereo shop and have an 8th" jack installed. You'll have a wire hanging out, but you'll get to use your MP3.

Yes, apparently it's not a big deal to get someone to install the input jack and make it look slick. I really should do that sometime. I tend to drive my motorcycle a lot more though, so it hasn't been a priority.

my first reaction was that there's no way that different players could make an mp3 sound any different Mp3 is mp3. I'm no expert though and i suppose mp3 could be played differently through each player (through the process of decoding into audio while playing). And I'm sure there's more than one method to play mp3 files. With that said, I'd actually encourage you to dump mp3 and move to a better quality, such as flac. It's free lossless audio codec. It sounds a ton better than mp3.

However, if you don't have the original file (.wav) to encode into flac, this isn't really an option.

Here's what I do: I use Audiogalaxy (yes, it's back, but as a cloud player) to upload my music to the cloud. I then access it via my phone in my car. My car uses an old cassette adapter to plug into my phone. This solution cost me about 10 bucks.

If you don't have cassette player. buy an FM trasmiter and it will trasmit the audio to 88.8 on your radio. No wires.

Wow, FLAC/WAV/Lossless forms sound way better than .mp3!

iTunes allows me the option of converting everything to Apple Lossless versions, but a 4.5mb song takes up 24.5mb.....although with my new laptop having a 500gb hard drive this shouldn't be an issue anymore. Is apple lossless similar to FLAC?