HD5 versus other players out there now

[rclimbs]

I was considering a purchase of an HD5, although now that it has been discontinued I guess I would have to find a used one. The main attraction was the superior sound quality and excellent battery life - that's pretty much all I'm looking for. Do you guys think the HD5 is still the way to go or should I look at the Zen Vision M or maybe the IAudio X5? The Ipods I've heard have sounded pretty crappy. Also, I read someone who took their existing MP3s and loaded them onto their Sony player and it locked those files on their computer so that they can no longer be accessed or placed on any other player - is that true? If so, it would be somewhat disconcerting since Sony seems to support each player they release for about 6 months and then forget about it. Also, does the NW5 work with the latest release of Sonicstage, if that it in fact an upgrade??

[Guest Stuge]

Not sure about the Creative Zen M but many people claim that I Audio X5 sound quality is equavalent to hd5 .

There are two models in IAudio as well one is X5 & other is X5L (more battery life & costlier).

As far as buying a HD5 is concerned you can seehere

Also Don`t worry HD5 is fully compatible with SonicStage ver3.4 .

[muso]

Hi rclimbs.

I've not come across any mp3's being locked by Sonicstage at all. It just references their position on the HDD so it can find them and transfer them.

HD5 - don't know about the other players to be fair, but I quite like mine. It seems really solidly built and sounds pretty nice too. I much prefer it to how the new Sony HDD machines look. And as Stuge says, it works perfectly well with Sonicstage (I quite like Sonicstage nowadays!).

[lamewing]

Not sure about the Creative Zen M but many people claim that I Audio X5 sound quality is equavalent to hd5 .

There are two models in IAudio as well one is X5 & other is X5L (more battery life & costlier).

As far as buying a HD5 is concerned you can seehere

Also Don`t worry HD5 is fully compatible with SonicStage ver3.4 .

It is too bad no one reads the classifieds here, until it is too late. I sold 5 NEW HD5 for about $220.00 this week on ebay.

In regards to the X5L, YES, it does sound as good as the HD5 and doesn't deal with any DRM nonsense. True drag-and-drop capability for both PC and Mac. If you get the iAudio, get the XL version as the battery is around 30 hours of capacity.

Edited March 26, 2006 by lamewing

[Guest Stuge]

It is too bad no one reads the classifieds here.

Yeah! I totally agree with you ,I think if it is highlighted using some colour(like red ,orange ,blue or green ) then it might work.Atleast people will look at classified section.

[Exapno]

I've been looking at DAPs for far too long now and recently purchased my first HDD DAP (I also have a 1GB iAudio 5). I finally got an HD5H 30GB on eBay for a good price. I like the X5L but I wanted gapless playback and decent battery life (and the ability to swap the battery easily). The X5 provides excellent flexibilty but the HD5 had the features I wanted. Sonicstage could be better but 3.4 works ok.