[lug] portable ogg players

[David Morris]

On Fri, Jun 13, 2008 at 5:53 AM, Louis Miller <veganguy at canadaseek.com> wrote:
> Hey folks,
>
>  Has anyone done some extensive research on portable Ogg
>  players? I hear the sound on Ogg is much better than mp3.
>  I have a Sandisk mp3 player. I took off the earbuds that
>  came with it, and plugged in my $20 Sony headphones, and
>  the sound improved considerably. Dramatically! For the
>  Ogg players, it seems many of them are only available in
>  the UK. Or a lot of them have video capability, which
>  drives up the price. If there were plenty of them on the
>  market, I could get a good used one on Craig's List for
>  $40.

I do continual and extensive research on this subject
because I've yet to find *anything* which meets all of my
requirements.  However, there are two notable alternatives
currently on the market which are adequate:

iRiver ifp 899 (or 799)
VERY good sound quality, but limited bit rates for ogg files
which it can play.  I'm not certain if the updated version
(T60) has solved this problem.  Battery life is only
acceptable at 20 hours.

Cowon D20
Expensive, so I don't have it yet, but from what I've heard:
good sound quality, very good battery life (40 hours or
more), SD/SDHC card slot, and complete support for ogg
files.  The *major* drawback is an annoying touch-screen
interface.  The rechargeable battery is also not user
replaceable.  On the plus side, Cowon seems to be regularly
updating the firmware.

The Cowon D20 is, in my opinion, the best option currently
on the market....but still doesn't meet all my requirements,
so I haven't bought one yet. (I'm still hoping for a similar
player without the touch-screen interface and using AA or
AAA batteries)

--David