Portable player recommendation.

[gommer]

Hi all

since this forum is mostly about cans, i would think many of you have some sort of portable gear.

I've been happy for many years with my iRiver H140, reflashed with rockbox (enabling it playing gapless, flac, ape, ...) This was all good untill one day i plugged in the wrong wall adapter and poof... It has no more charger and only works connected to mains.

I'm wondering now, is it worth the hassle of fixing it or are there better things around now. A long time ago, i compared my iRiver with a 1st or 2nd generation iPod and the difference was large, prefering my iRiver. It would be perfect if anyone could compare this semi-legendary model with a more modern player from first hand experience.

Cheers, Marc

[mrarroyo]

How much do you want to spend? I would convert the unit from a 40 GB HD to either a CF64GB or a 120 GB HD. Concurrently I would replace the battery with either route you choose to go.

You could go with a Head Direct HiFiMAN HM602 or HM801 but these cost $400 or $800 respectively. The HM801 is a superb sounding unit capable of playing 24/96 but the operating system is a challenge. Both of these unit use SDHC cards up to 32 GB type 4 so you could carry as much music as you wish (just buy another card).

Back to the iRiver, if you check the iBasso site you will find their Boombslang and Toucan amp and dac respectively. Your iRiver would become a amazing sounding combo if used this way, albeit very large.