need a new player - best option?

[InGearX]

I lost my Sandisk Clip Zip with 128GB card

I love ROCKbox

I need a new player

(not vital but nice if it has microSD card to expand memory and a volume rocker)

I looked at all the Stable and Unstable ports trying to find them on Amazon / eBay / where else to look?

maybe I overlooked something?

what are our top three options at the moment ?

in terms of value for the price?

or is there any player with OS that is close to rockbox?
- MicroSD slot
- easy volume rocker
- no DB re-index when adding files
- car mode (auto play when power is given)
- auto sleep after x minutes


thank you !!!

Stable ports
Rockbox runs well on these players, has installation instructions, and is supported by the installer:

Apple: iPod 1g through 6g (Classic), iPod Mini, iPod Nano 1g, iPod Nano 2g
Archos: Jukebox 5000, 6000, Studio, Recorder, FM Recorder, Recorder V2 and Ondio
Cowon: iAudio X5, X5V, X5L, M5, M5L, M3 and M3L
Creative: Zen Mozaic, Zen X-Fi, Zen X-Fi 3 and Zen X-Fi Style
iriver: iHP100 series, H100 series, H300 series and H10 series
MPIO: HD300
Olympus: M:Robe 100
Packard Bell: Vibe 500
Philips: GoGear SA9200, GoGear HDD16x0 and HDD63x0
Samsung: YH-820, YH-920 and YH-925
SanDisk: Sansa c200, e200 and e200R series, Fuze and Fuze+, Clip, Clip+ and Clip Zip
Toshiba: Gigabeat X and F series
xDuoo: X3


Unstable ports
Rockbox runs on these players, but is incomplete, less usable or has problems that limit it to advanced users:

Agptek: Rocker (aka Benjie T6)
AIGO: Eros Q / K (aka HIFI WALKER H2, AGPTek H3, and Surfans F20)
Creative: Zen and Zen X-Fi 2
Cowon: D2
HiFi E.T: MA9, MA8
HiFiMAN: HM-601, HM-602, HM-603, HM-801
iBasso: DX50, DX90
MPIO: HD200
Olympus: M:Robe 500
Samsung: YP-R0, YP-R1
Sony: NWZ-E350, NWZ-E360, NWZ-E370, NWZ-E380, NWZ-E450, NWZ-E460, NWZ-E470, NWZ-E580, NWZ-A860, NWZ-A10, and NW-A20 series.
Toshiba: Gigabeat S
xDuoo: X3ii, and X20

[braewoods]

For obvious reasons most of the non-stable ports are not recommended.

AFAIK the only ports with external micro SD card are most of the Sansa ports and a few of the newer ports like the xDuoo X3. I personally don't care for these ports because their batteries are usually hard to replace or break when their internal storage wears out.

We have a lot of iPod users but I don't know much about the ports as I've never used one. I do know we have a problem with the iFlash adapters so you may run into problems if you're trying to mod an iPod's storage.

ArchOS has been completely removed with 3.15 being the last release that supported it. So that's not recommended.

Packard Bell Vibe 500, I have never seen this for sale and it is super rare. I can't recommend something you can't really find.

I failed to make sense of the Creative ports so I can't really recommend them. Feel free to research them but it was rather confusing when I tried.

All the stable Samsung ports are easy to open but have very finicky HDD connectors that can easily pop out, making it hard to form a good connection. I do not recommend them for this reason. But if you want to give them a shot I can't think of anything else really wrong with them. They're somewhat common to find and have readily available replacement batteries.

The Cowon and MPIO ports are all ColdFire from what I recall and are all hard to find. I personally do not recommend them as the iRiver ColdFire ports are mostly equivalent and far more common to find still. That said I did work on both the iRiver H100 and H300 series to produce an updated bootloader to fix some outstanding issues. Both have their ups and downs but are more or less a solid choice and not super hard to find.

The M:Robe 100 and iRiver H10 5/6GB ports are not recommended due to their unusual storage interface or replacement batteries. These consumeables are harder to find for these or outright impossible. The main problem is the lack of adapter for the Seagate Flex ATA interface.

However the iRiver H10 20GB port is another story. It's compatible with the same battery used in the iRiver H100 and H300 and uses a 40 pin ZIF connector so you can replace the internal storage with a bit of effort. My only real grievance with the H10 is the slow write speeds. It does at best 7.5MB/s where the H100 or H300 can easily do 13.3MB/s. This doesn't seem to be a general PortalPlayer problem as I have other PortalPlayer units that can reach 13MB/s.

As for the GoGears, I own several HDD1630s and HDD6330s as I am currently using them for developing those ports a bit further. I saw lots of HDD1630 units on ebay but the HDD6330 units are pretty rare to find. I have 2 of each type that I managed to find after months of watching and searching ebay. The SA9200 is also supported but I don't recommend it due to its limitations. It's flash based with no removeable storage and therefore non-upgradeable.

If you find a HDD1630, it originally used a CF Type II card and so is a very trivial replacement. But the battery is another story. The Cameron Sino batteries barely fit the tight constraints inside so it may have a bit of a gap when you go to seal it back up. Plus you need the right size allen wrench or hex key to open it due to what they used to seal it up originally.

As for the HDD6330, it's much bigger than the HDD1630 and has way more space. I'm planning to upgrade the storage in mine soon mostly to replace the ailing drives that seem to be giving me reliability issues. They have more RAM than the HDD1630 and have remote control functionality if you have the optional dock accessory. They also have a TV out chip. Both are things I am trying to add support for in Rockbox but are currently unsupported.

As for the Gigabeat F/X, I have seen a fair number of Gigabeat Fs and even tried to restore one but that went south fast when I discovered that the barrel jack no longer functioned. It seemed to be a well constructed unit otherwise as most of the case was aluminium instead of plastic. I have not seen any Gigabeat X units so I cannot comment on them.

And that brings me to the last port, the Gigabeat S. I own a few and am also working on trying to finish up the last work it needs to become stable. The only thing really keeping it back is having an automated installation process. The port is otherwise complete save for support for the TV out chip. Only problem is they're somewhat rare and pricey.

So in short, I consider the iRiver H10 20GB, H100, and H300 series, the Philips GoGear HDD1630 and HDD6330, and the Gigabeat S to be solid choices. They're all HDD based and can be CF modded with some effort. They all have readily available replacement batteries as well.

The problem with price however is that it varies with the market. Some people want insane prices for their old stuff. And some people are just getting rid of old stuff they think is broken but just needs some TLC to be working again.

[braewoods]

Also you could consider buying from one of the people here if any are open to selling something from their collection. Of my current collection the only one I'm open to selling is my iRiver H10 collection which consists of a H10 5GB with some of its accessories and a H10 20GB that I got in good condition and restored to working order with some repairs. The H10 20GB is already using a 64GB card. You can upgrade it with a larger capacity card or even a SD to CF card adapter such as the one iFlash sells. Though I think it will need a new adapter from Gomadic as the one I was using has started to fall out easily.

Otherwise I'll see what I can find on ebay for you.

Edit: Oh, and I suppose I'd be willing to sell my last H120 if I got a good offer. But it's in very good condition with most if not all the original accessories that I managed to put together from the stuff I bought to work on the bootloader project. It was CF modded to 64GB and a new battery back in November of last year, IIRC.

[GSV3MiaC]

I'm looking too, although my clipzip is failing, not yet lost. How about the hifi walker h2, or the surfans f20 or the fiio m3k, all of which can, i believe, be rockboxed, and which are available on amazon (at least in UK)?

Maybe one of the rockbox gurus will advise which to go for. I love rockbox, but it is always 2 hardware generation behind. What we need is  crowd funded Rockbox hardware builder!

[silverbear]

Same here. I've had my Ipod repaired & upgraded several times but feel a little exposed. I'd like another player as backup.
I'd go for a dedicated player though I'm not sure it would be a viable option. It would be interesting to find out though.

[GSV3MiaC]

I just got my FIIO M3K (from Amazon USA, since the Uk was out of stock and the USA one was nearly 40% cheaper) .. yet to put RB on it, but actually the basic stock firmware ain't half bad .. took 2 attempts to index the 9000 .ogg and m3u songs already on a 64GB card, but it now plays them very nicely (most modern players choke and die around 1500 or 5000 songs, the SOCs having become brain dead, and many think OGG is only a character in discworld).

Assuming RB goes on OK I am well pleased with the purchase .. but hurry, there are not many left. Took 10 days to get here, £67.95 delivered. OK a clipzip is 2x smaller, 2x cheaper, etc but is 100% less available. (and the FIIO actually sounds better .. guess the 10 years development of audio codecs has not been wasted).

[braewoods]

Are either of you still looking for another player? I'll have some players I could sell in the near future.