I want a portable music player that plays FLAC

[tehbeermang]

I don't know where else to post this, the cafe looked like it was as good as any place.

Does a portable FLAC player exist? I'm contented with my cheap 1gb coby and mp3, but I love flac's sound quality.

If I have to, how do I hack an iPod to play flac?

[ajcham]

Both Irivers and Cowons play FLAC, I believe. As the owner of an an Iriver Lplayer, I'd recommend a Cowon.:p Don't get me wrong, the Iriver is a great player - it has superb sound, looks rather slick, has a good interface and was fantastic value for money. There are just a few niggling issues such as having to mount it manually on my PC and the way it sorts tracks - it ignores filenames and tags, choosing instead to sort by date(!?). Cowon players, to my knowledge, do not suffer these issues and also have the same high standard of audio quality.

[corney91]

I have a Sansa e280 with rockbox (http://www.rockbox.org/) on it - rockbox plays various formats including FLAC. Would highly recommend it but I have heard that the version 2 e200s don't work with rockbox - that was months ago so may be OK now...
You can put rockbox on many different players so you could pick any that work with it. Rockbox really is awesome :)

[smartboyathome]

I have a Sansa e280 with rockbox (http://www.rockbox.org/) on it - rockbox plays various formats including FLAC. Would highly recommend it but I have heard that the version 2 e200s don't work with rockbox - that was months ago so may be OK now...
You can put rockbox on many different players so you could pick any that work with it. Rockbox really is awesome :)

Version 2 still doesn't work on Rockbox. Someone has to figure out how to port it. :(

[Metallion]

Not sure if this helps but a Nintendo DS with can easily play flac with the help of some homebrew. :) That's how I do it.

[corney91]

Version 2 still doesn't work on Rockbox. Someone has to figure out how to port it. :(
Hmmm... I just had a look at the Major Changes List (http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/MajorChanges) and has this under Version 3.0: "2007-09-04: The SanDisk Sansa e200R models are now Rockboxed!"
It was the Rhapsody models that I was thinking about - do they definitely not work? Or is the version 2 different to the e200R?

[mikeize]

I have a Sansa e260R (The "R" stands for Rhapsody) that has been running Rockbox fine for over a year now. I love it.

Yeah, Rockbox works on all kinds of mp3 player type devices. Just go to their website and check out supported models. Also, what's really nice about Rockbox, is that the installation is ALONGSIDE the original firm/software--so you ALWAYS have the option to boot into the original (just hold down a certain key while booting). Easily removable as well, so no harm at all in trying it out.

I got Rockbox specifically because I wanted to play formats like flac and ogg. It's really great.

[m0ntels]

The gf has a Cowon D2 and I have a Sansa Fuze. Both of those, and also the Sanasa Clip support FLAC and work perfectly for us, but we don't have any FLAC files, so I can't say how well it handles them.

Both have superb sound quality, but they don't sound very much like each other if that makes sense. I prefer the Clip/Fuze sound processing. The Fuze and D2 offer expandable memory as well, so if you plan on playing much FLAC, that may be a benefit.

[Lostincyberspace]

I have a cowon D2 it plays flac, ogg, mp3. It also plays video, I haven't gotten that to work but I haven't read the manual yet so I might just be stupid.

Have fun!

PS: the cowons are nice since you can use a standard sd cards in them.

[rotwang888]

I love my Cowon iaudio 7. Plays flac just fine, sounds great. It doesn't take sd cards, but the 16gb model is pretty cheap on Amazon. All the current Cowons play flac. The s9 is very sexy, but the big screen might be more than you need if you're only using a player for music. If you already have an ipod, put rock box on it for sure, otherwise vote with your wallet for companies that support open formats. Sorry for the sermon.

[TBOL3]

Rockbox works on all v1 e200, and it will work on all e200R (because they're all v1).

[UbuWu]

I would recommend the sansa clip.

[Polygon]

i personally hate rockbox. i think the interface sucks

i personally have had a cowon iaudio x5l, which died after a while, and now i have a cowon iaudio d2. they are both great players, play FLAC, and you can just copy/paste the music on to your player. +1 for cowon.

[roachk71]

I own a Sansa Clip 2GB model with the latest firmware, and though its capacity is quite limited, FLAC and Ogg Vorbis play great.

[yuku-aki]

http://flac.sourceforge.net/links.html

Lists all currently compatible devices with readily available support for FLAC, and links to free software, and some proprietary stuff.