Yet another "help me choose an mp3 player" thread

[augied]

This forum represents the largest group of (mostly) intelligent people that I can contact, so I thought I'd ask your advice on this.
I'm considering three mp3 players to replace my (extremely) beat up Rio Karma. The iAudio X5, the iAudio M3, and the iRiver H140 (with Rockbox firmware).
The features that I want are:
Larger hard drive than the Karma
FLAC and Vorbis support
Gapless playback (I guess could live with a tiny gap)
Metal case (see above)
USB support for Linux (the Karma is a nightmare)
All the standard mp3 player stuff (battery life, usability, etc.)
And of course, it needs to be as cheap as possible.

Here is my list of pros and cons (that I can think of right now)

X5:
+Huge hard drive (60gb)
+FLAC and OGG supported natively
+Not discontinued
-Expensive
-No gapless

M3:
+FLAC and OGG supported natively
+The remote is a cool concept
+About $100 less than X5
-I haven't yet decided if I like the cool concept
-Again, no gapless
-Only 40gb (that's probably enough for me, but in this case, bigger is definitely better.)
-I really don't know if it's still supported

H140:
+GAPLESS!!!!!
+Lots of extra codecs
+About the same price as the M3
-While I do trust Rockbox, it is non-default firmware, and it voids the warranty
-I've heard mixed reports concerning Rockbox and power management
-40gb (see M3)
-I can't even find a mention of it on the iRiver site

Please give me your opinion (unless it involves an iPod.) I'd welcome suggestions for other players (once again, unless it's an iPod.)

Augie

[banjobacon]

Wouldn't the H140 have to be purchased used, or do you know a store that still carries them new? I have an H120, and it's served me well, but when I see newer audio players, I wish mine were thinner and had a color screen. It still works great, though, and that's what matters most.

I think Rockbox also runs on the X5.

[jujoje]

I've got the got the cowon M3 and I think it's pretty good. I find the remote pretty useful, since it means you never have to take the mp3 player out of your pocket to change the track and so forth. However the navigation system for the remote is not the most obvious of things and does require a bit of getting used to.

A brief list of what I think's good and bad about the player:

pros
+ Really solid build. I've had mine for over a year and a half. Been dropped, bounced around in a my bag with various other stuff and still working fine. Also the battery is still going strong.
+ Mounts as a usb harddisk so you can just drag and drop files onto the player
+ Can record directly from other devices to the iAudio (e.g. minidisc player to M3). Found it useful for making copies of old tapes and minidisks I had lying around. Can also record voice.
+ Can play most codecs and the sound quality is good.
+ I think the remote is a damn useful idea.

cons
- Remote navigation can be a bit puzzling at first. Once you get used to it it's quite good though.
- Can take a while to start up. Not sure about other MP3 players but once the M3 is getting full it takes a little while to start up.

A friend of mine has the X5. From briefly looking at it, it does have the same kinda build quality as the M3 and seems a very solid device. The navigation seemed good and the colour screen definitly looked pimp and the battery life seems good. Haven't really looked at it in detail, but it seems to be a M3 with a screen bolted on. One of the cool features was that you could plug a digital camera into it and transfer photos.

Generally I think Cowons support is good: they seem to regularly update the firmware and, from reading on their forums, they are offering to replace batteries for a small fee even outside of the waranty. I haven't actually had any trouble with my mp3 player so I can't speak personally but their support does seem good.

Anyways hope that helps

[TeeAhr1]

I've got a great one from Sony that I'm quite pleased with. It's storage space is pretty minimal (700MB) but it's not on a hard drive, it's removable media, almost like a disc. And I can put whatever I want on these little discs (they're cheap), and carry around fifty if I so choose, and even rewrite on them, for a fraction of the cost of an i-whatever.

Ladies and gentlemen, reacquaint yourself with the original mp3 player...the Discman.

:p