Need MP3 Player Advice
 

Well, after almost 6 years of loyal service, I'm beginning to have trouble with my beloved Cowon D2. I've had it apart once already, and may still find a way to fix the switch that's giving me trouble, but I think I have to start looking at other options.

My first thought was to go back to Cowon, but what I can find of their current gen is unappealing or unavailable in Canada.

I love the toys inherent in an iPod Touch, but they're too expensive (even refurbished), they have no memory expansion capability (so I have to buy bigger to begin with--I'm thinking 32GB), and I HATE iTunes. Oh, and everything I read tells me that I'll be disappointed in the sound quality, particularly migrating from a Cowon.

That doesn't seem to leave a lot. I want excellent sound first and foremost, decent capacity, and resilience. Video would be nice, and other toys are interesting, but not must-haves.


Thoughts?

I read the title and my first thought was Cowon haha. Wish I could be of more help as I know little of the market nowadays aside from staying away from the apple crap.

Sansa

assuming you do go apple, there are itunes alternatives aka older version's of Songbird and/or copytrans. (otherwise you could also install itunes without the bloatware, not sure if this is still possible but there "were" guides on blogs.

I was looking at the Sony Z series myself - model NWZZ1060B. A bit too expensive, but I demoed it in-store and the quality was pretty good. Currently using a Samsung P3 and the quality is comparable to this. Tests were done with eq off and a pair of Shure440; both unampped.

Thanks to all for the suggestions, so far. I'm leaning toward either the Touch or importing an S9...both of which are more expensive than I'd like, and that's with the S9 used, and the apple refurbished...

Hardware EQ and headphone amp aside, there's virtually no difference in sound quality between a Cowon player and an Apple product. (if anything, most "i" devices have better DACs) The headphone amp is a moot point for the Cowon, so if you don't actually use the EQ all the time, there's no point in paying a premium for a Cowon product.

If a refurb itouch is still too expensive for your tastes, just get a Sansa player. The Clip+ and Fuze have slightly better sound quality out of the box, memory expansion, Rockbox compatibility, and come WAY cheaper. All you're really sacrificing is the "smartphone" abilities of the itouch.

Just to update this thread, I did end up going with the iPod Touch (8GB). It hasn't arrived yet, so we'll see if it's a mistake, but I'm already anticipating using a 3rd party EQ and an iTunes alternative. Here's hoping it works out!

Get a line out cable..headphone out on the ipod touch is terrible

Sorry, Jaquelegs, I don't quite follow. What's the issue with the headphone jack that doesn't affect the line out?