Which Portable Music Player

[iaudio]

Try and get the Soundmagic E30, it should satisfy your requirements.

 

[grubyhalo]

Try and get the Soundmagic E30, it should satisfy your requirements.

What would you suggest if I wanted the earbud equivalent of E30 instead of an IEM?

 

[iaudio]

Grubyhalo, Thats a tough call, 'cause I have very little experience with 'buds in recent times. esanthosh, on the other hand, has a fair idea of whats good among earbuds. I have heard a lot of good things about Yuin, but most models are quite expensive.
If money is no object:
The Final Audio Design Piano Forte X-VIII Earbuds Will Blow Your Mind | Incredible Things

 

[grubyhalo]

Grubyhalo, Thats a tough call, 'cause I have very little experience with 'buds in recent times. esanthosh, on the other hand, has a fair idea of whats good among earbuds. I have heard a lot of good things about Yuin, but most models are quite expensive.
If money is no object:
The Final Audio Design Piano Forte X-VIII Earbuds Will Blow Your Mind | Incredible Things

Thanks! I was at one time considering Yuin, but somehow the build quality does not inspire me much. Especially since this one would be going into a purse, un-shielded from other essentials that would be carried together...

 

[iaudio]

ritchie, Are you not comfortable with IEMs?

 

[edge111hussain]

If budget can be exceeded, what are the other options?

I looked at Pl30 and did not like the look. It was not far away from my budget, IIRC, it was available for somewhere around 1800

Any opinion on soundmagic es18. Some give it double thumbs up and some trash it.

If there is not much option I will continue with sennheiser pmx-80

if budget can be increased, then look at brainwavz. M2, M3, M4. Though all 3 of em r good, one of them is know for its amazing soundstage and tight thumping bass. Think its the m2 but i could be wrong. Other alternate is the klipsch image S4 or the sennheiser cx-400/450(in ur budget i think).

 

[grubyhalo]

ritchie, Are you not comfortable with IEMs?

No. And neither is my wife.

P.S: How do you know my name?!

 

[ukjeyaraj]

Here is some update. I received Sansa fuze+ and will try to load some pics later.

1) Switched it on
2) Connected to PC and copied few 100 songs
3) Charging it
4) Yet to listen

Until now, I find the touch interface to be good. Player is currently set with version 1.27.02A. There is a latest version 2.x and I will upgrade to it.

 

[ukjeyaraj]

Here are some pics

In the box it had

Player
USB cable
Earbuds
Manual
Black pouch

I listened the following songs and found it more refreshing with sansa fuze+

English

1) Elvis Presley - Its now or never
2) Boyzone - I love the way you love me
3) Stevie Godman - City of New Orleans
4) Joan Jett - I love rock and roll
5) Billy Joel - We didnt start the fire

Tamil

1) Thangamagan - Poo Maalai
2) Baba - Sakthikodu
3) Rettai Vaal Kuruvi - Kannan Vanthu
4) Sakkarakatti - Taxi Taxi

Some of the songs are more revealing than it was in Zune / Laptop. With sansa almost all songs are in flac. But in zune it was always mp3. Right now listening through Sennheiser PMX-80 and Philips SHP2700. Philips headphone sounds warmer than Sennheiser. Sennheiser sounds wider than Philips.

 

[iaudio]

ukjeyaraj,

Congrats on the new purchase! It looks pretty nice in white.

edge111hussain, The M2 is the most popular of the trio you mentioned. But imho, the bass part of the M2 is overhyped. But you cant really go wrong with the sound signature though. However, recently the sharp hike in prices have stripped the m2 of its vfm.

grubyhalo, got your name from some convo/dialogue quite long back on the forum.
Also Sennheisser has a decent sounding budget earbud. I will let your know if I recollect.

 

[esanthosh]

@grubyhalo,

This should help (somewhat) : In Ear Matters: Earbuds Roundup

 

[grubyhalo]

@grubyhalo,

This should help (somewhat) : In Ear Matters: Earbuds Roundup

Thank you, appreciate it.

@ukjeyaraj: Nice looking player. I'm quite tempted...

 

[ukjeyaraj]

Here are some limitations found as of now

1) For FLAC embedded albumart does not work, whereas the same works for mp3.
2) Some flacs are not running with message file format not supported. After doing some search it seems flac with extra metadata not working in sansa fuze+. Need to find a way to remove and test it after that.

 

[ukjeyaraj]

Any view on this earphone

VSonic GR99

 

[ukjeyaraj]

Following are available for $44.5 from mp4nation.net. Confused as to which one to choose

Brainwavz R1 (with 2 days free fedex shipping)
Brainwavz M5 (with 2 days free fedex shipping)
Brainwavz M1 (with free regular 10 to 31 days shipping)
Brainwavz ProAlpha (with free regular 10 to 31 days shipping)

 

[ukjeyaraj]

Purchased Brainwavz M4. The final combo is Sansa Fuze+ 8GB with Brainwavz M4. Very happy with the combo.

Thanks to all who guided through this.