Rockbox General > Rockbox General Discussion

What Rockbox supported players are still available for sale?

<< < (2/2)

pfisterfarm:
Thanks for the help... at this point, I'm either going with a new Fuze+ or a used e250. Is the Fuze+ a better player?

ThaCrip:

--- Quote from: pfisterfarm on October 07, 2017, 08:00:48 PM ---Thanks for the help... at this point, I'm either going with a new Fuze+ or a used e250. Is the Fuze+ a better player?

--- End quote ---

I thought i have read around here not long ago that the Fuze+ main issue is the controls are not the best. maybe someone else can comment on that?

but i can say this... i have a Sansa e250 v1 myself and i have had it nearly 10 years now (i got it June 2008) and it's still going strong. it plays FLAC/AAC-LC/MP3 etc well(everything nice and responsive). it even works on Opus 1.2 files (i have tested up to 128kbps(which seems to be about the max anyone would need to use with Opus (given what i been reading on https://hydrogenaud.io/ )) and tried down to 32kbps) even though it's interface gets a bit sluggish (it's pretty much the same in the 32-128kbps ranges i have tried). but what i really like about this player is it's got a MicroSDHC slot, which is great as it instantly makes it have plenty of space where as 2GB is not much that the player comes with, and a user replaceable battery (which you can get on Ebay if you need one) which are two of the major things i like about it. it's just right as the size of the device is not too small or too big and everything responds quickly (except if your playing Opus files, but these are still useable if you don't mind your menu navigation being a bit sluggish while they are playing, but the music plays fine).

p.s. non AAC-LC files won't play on the e200 v1 series as it's too CPU intensive as it plays for a moment, stops, plays briefly, and keeps on doing this and the menu is not responsive and i have to hold the power button to power it off. then power it back on and it's fine again as long as you don't play AAC files outside of the AAC-LC spec. but if your using Foobar2000 to encode AAC-LC files with the Apple AAC encoder (which you can extract the "AppleApplicationSupport.msi" out of the iTunes installer using 7-zip and install that and Foobar2000 can use Apple AAC encoding)  it does AAC-LC by default on the 64kbps or higher settings so you ain't got to worry if your files will play on the e250 or not.

Bilgus:
That e250 sounds like a nice piece of kit Crip, I own a Fuze+, a Clip+ and a ClipZip and a few apple devices by far the clip+ is my favorite player but thats mainly for the form factor the zip is a close second. As for the Fuze+ the thing has a touchpad no not a touch screen a touchpad and with the OF it was downright unusable. With rockbox it is quite a bit better especially after you tweak some of the touchpad settings, but still something of an annoyance. The fuze+ inspired me to add some special locking options to RB like leaving the volume buttons unlocked or just the trackskip. So yeah it isn't perfect but its quite usable and has decent battery life and a decent processor as well so I guess all in all its not that bad after you get used to it.

ThaCrip:

--- Quote from: Bilgus on October 08, 2017, 09:46:05 AM ---That e250 sounds like a nice piece of kit Crip, I own a Fuze+, a Clip+ and a ClipZip and a few apple devices by far the clip+ is my favorite player but thats mainly for the form factor the zip is a close second. As for the Fuze+ the thing has a touchpad no not a touch screen a touchpad and with the OF it was downright unusable. With rockbox it is quite a bit better especially after you tweak some of the touchpad settings, but still something of an annoyance. The fuze+ inspired me to add some special locking options to RB like leaving the volume buttons unlocked or just the trackskip. So yeah it isn't perfect but its quite usable and has decent battery life and a decent processor as well so I guess all in all its not that bad after you get used to it.
--- End quote ---

Okay, thanks for the info as what you said sounds similar to what i recall reading with it's touchpad being the hardware's biggest fault. but outside of that it was okay.

but basically... while the Fuze+ not perfect for you, it's not a showstopper, especially with Rockbox on it.

but i am curious... how does it play Opus files (say 128kbps and less) or AAC files other than AAC-LC(since those are not CPU intensive)? ; because while the Opus files play fine on my e200 v1 series player i notice if you got a music file playing and then start navigating through the menus with the scroll wheel etc it gets a bit sluggish(even though music playback is fine) as it does not respond nice and quick like it normally does when doing that same stuff on your typical AAC-LC or MP3 etc file.

but from what i can tell it seems Opus shines at lower bit rates... like appears to be the all around #1 in say 48-96kbps range or so from looking at stuff on https://hydrogenaud.io/ ; like gives you respectable sound quality at a low to really low file size.

but just playing around with that Opus v1.2 stuff in Foobar2000 with the conversion of FLAC to Opus... even at 32kbps you get decent sound quality out of it even though it's not hard to ABX as just going from 32kbps to 48kbps cleans up the overall sound quite a bit where i start having to put noticeably more effort to ABX it. but at 64kbps... while i have not thoroughly tested myself, it seems there are other users who have recently (like this month or last month) said 64kbps they struggle to ABX for them which i have a feeling ill be in the ball park of those users. sure, i realize those who are more trained/or golden ears etc can clearly go higher than that. but it just shows you how solid modern encoders are @ 64kbps. even with the Apple AAC encoder with the AAC-LC type... once i hit 64kbps on that is when all of the obvious stuff for me to detect was cleaned up as dropping back to 48kbps i can pick up on it pretty quickly on random songs i got but at 64kbps is when things get more difficult for me. but i have a feeling Opus would beat AAC-LC at the 64kbps range which is why i am hoping that hydrogenaudio website does some listening tests and posts some info just to see if my thoughts are inline with the actual data.

but yeah, i like my Sansa e250 with Rockbox over the Zune 30GB for sure, which is the only other portable digital audio player i got, as Rockbox functions like things should where it lets you put things onto the devices memory however you want to (and then load folders/files directly) instead of being locked down and being forced to use their crap software to get songs on it etc like with the Zune. i just hope my Sansa never dies for the foreseeable future as it should be good short of some random hardware failure because i won't have to worry about storage space or battery. but without that MicroSDHC slot the device would be clearly handicapped as only 2GB built in memory is not much. sure, i could still fit quite a few albums on there but i tend to prefer keeping basically my whole collection on it so i can rip my collection (FLAC to AAC etc) and be done with it. but recently i am going through and re-ripping my FLAC to Apple AAC 128kbps and Opus 64kbps(Opus for music less important for me) as this way ill have maximum storage space while retaining solid enough sound quality as it seems most consider Apple AAC @ q63 (128kbps) quite good and still offers plenty of storage space that way to as i was generally using MP3 @ 190kbps (i.e. LAME v2) but i figure ill just do Apple AAC @ 128kbps as MP3 190kbps seems like mostly a waste of storage space and at lower bit rates Opus/AAC seem to be king. but ill basically rip my entire collection to Apple AAC 128kbps (using Foobar2000's converter) and then have another copy in Opus 64kbps format (Opus v1.2 was released earlier this year with sound quality improvements especially at lower bit rates). so if i ever need to free up some space i can simply swap some AAC 128kbps to the Opus 64kbps etc. but with that combo, free space is about as good as can be as if that runs out, it's time for a bigger MicroSD card but i should be good for the foreseeable future i suspect.

sorry for the novel, just thought i would make some comments ;)

Bilgus:
I've never had the fuze+ so much as stutter on flac or mp3 files but I also have no opus files what so ever.  I can test one that stutters on your device if you like.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page