Sony NW-ZX1: 35th Walkman Aniv. model with 128 GB on Board & 24/192 capable

[Leonardo Drummond]

I wonder what did you find so lacking about the ZX1 & AK100II?  I personally love the ZX1 as a "do everything very well player".  If you don't need a digital out, the battery is plenty long enough for all file types.  It also support hi-rez/lossless streaming from a wifi drive as well.  I love my AK100 modded too but mainly due to its 288gb storage capacity.

 

These two were actually the closest!

 

But the ZX1 didn't have enough memory, as I like to carry my whole library with me in trips – or at least a good chunk of it.

 

The AK, on the other hand, did have the memory (with a 128Gb card) and was extremely pleasurable to use but I just didn't think the jump in SQ was enough to justify the cost to me – especially having recently heard the Calyx M, which is the best player I've ever heard in SQ terms – and, to make matters worse, syncronization was a pain with a Mac. I couldn't get that Dapper utility to work with it because SyncMate just wouldn't see it, so synchronization had to be manual. 

 

And since I mentioned the Calyx, the main issue with it is battery life. With regular use, it would drain its battery in about 3 hours, which to me is something that doesn't make it really portable. 

Edited January 7, 2015 by Leonardo Drummond

[Dusty Chalk]

Someone on another forum was also struggling with an iPod Classic replacement.  They installed a SSD, and got increased battery life out of it as a by-product.  I'm hard on the controls (so worry about how much life the iClassic has other than the drive), otherwise I'd do similarly.  There's a reddit thread that was mentioned.

[purk]

These two were actually the closest!

 

But the ZX1 didn't have enough memory, as I like to carry my whole library with me in trips – or at least a good chunk of it.

 

The AK, on the other hand, did have the memory (with a 128Gb card) and was extremely pleasurable to use but I just didn't think the jump in SQ was enough to justify the cost to me – especially having recently heard the Calyx M, which is the best player I've ever heard in SQ terms – and, to make matters worse, syncronization was a pain with a Mac. I couldn't get that Dapper utility to work with it because SyncMate just wouldn't see it, so synchronization had to be manual. 

 

And since I mentioned the Calyx, the main issue with it is battery life. With regular use, it would drain its battery in about 3 hours, which to me is something that doesn't make it really portable. 

You got me there on the storage space.  128GB onboard isn't quite enough to store many hi-rez albums.

[Leonardo Drummond]

Someone on another forum was also struggling with an iPod Classic replacement.  They installed a SSD, and got increased battery life out of it as a by-product.  I'm hard on the controls (so worry about how much life the iClassic has other than the drive), otherwise I'd do similarly.  There's a reddit thread that was mentioned.

 

Yeah Peter, I was actually looking at some tutorials for this, but it goes well beyond my DIY skills... I guess I'll just try an amp and see where that gets me. There are some offers on head-fi for Pico Slims, I'll give it a go!

 

You got me there on the storage space.  128GB onboard isn't quite enough to store many hi-rez albums.

 

Indeed! I don't need much more than that actually, the iPod's 160Gb are enough to me.