Gapless Flac on Android or Save Up for a New Flac Player

[nab]

A month or so ago, my Cowan S9 bricked.  Googling for fixes and attempting said fixes taught me a lot about how to use DOS, but didn't revive my bricked Cowan. 

So now the question, do I save up for another personal gapless flac player, or do I try to use my phone as a substitute?

The real answer to that question is already sort of solved in my head; I'm gonna want to eventually save up for another personal player due to the battery demands already pressing on my phone.  I use it a lot in the field to orient myself, mark sites, and as my electronic back-up in case of emergency when I'm lucky enough to grab coverage.  My ability to recharge in the field is usually limited to a cigarette lighter adapter traveling to an from the job site. 

But, I'm likely going to have to wait for a windfall to buy another personal media player.


So, have any of you had any luck with gapless flac playback and Android?  Google queries so far seem to be mixed so I'm looking for input from friends. 

I'm looking into Poweramp pro:

http://powerampapp.com/

Anyone have any experience with this app?

[UncleEbinezer]

A month or so ago, my Cowan S9 bricked.  Googling for fixes and attempting said fixes taught me a lot about how to use DOS, but didn't revive my bricked Cowan. 

So now the question, do I save up for another personal gapless flac player, or do I try to use my phone as a substitute?

The real answer to that question is already sort of solved in my head; I'm gonna want to eventually save up for another personal player due to the battery demands already pressing on my phone.  I use it a lot in the field to orient myself, mark sites, and as my electronic back-up in case of emergency when I'm lucky enough to grab coverage.  My ability to recharge in the field is usually limited to a cigarette lighter adapter traveling to an from the job site. 

But, I'm likely going to have to wait for a windfall to buy another personal media player.


So, have any of you had any luck with gapless flac playback and Android?  Google queries so far seem to be mixed so I'm looking for input from friends. 

I'm looking into Poweramp pro:

http://powerampapp.com/

Anyone have any experience with this app?

Buying that and an extra battery is probably more cost effective.

[twatts]

A month or so ago, my Cowan S9 bricked.  Googling for fixes and attempting said fixes taught me a lot about how to use DOS, but didn't revive my bricked Cowan. 

So now the question, do I save up for another personal gapless flac player, or do I try to use my phone as a substitute?

The real answer to that question is already sort of solved in my head; I'm gonna want to eventually save up for another personal player due to the battery demands already pressing on my phone.  I use it a lot in the field to orient myself, mark sites, and as my electronic back-up in case of emergency when I'm lucky enough to grab coverage.  My ability to recharge in the field is usually limited to a cigarette lighter adapter traveling to an from the job site. 

But, I'm likely going to have to wait for a windfall to buy another personal media player.


So, have any of you had any luck with gapless flac playback and Android?  Google queries so far seem to be mixed so I'm looking for input from friends. 

I'm looking into Poweramp pro:

http://powerampapp.com/

Anyone have any experience with this app?

Buying that and an extra battery is probably more cost effective.

This is on my Xmas List:  http://tinyurl.com/cjo8kyp

Its supposed to be gapless after RockBoxing...  We'll see...  I figure for $30 it can't hurt to try...

Terry

[nab]

I've thought about going both the Clip and extra battery route.  I'm still undecided.  Indeed both would save money.

The extra battery route is the most tempting to me as it allows me to use a device I already have and eliminates the need to carry another one.  This would likely come with the need to buy a larger memory card as well.  On the other hand, if both go out, I'm still constrained by short time frames for charging.  Maybe three batteries, one used only for emergency backup in my backpack, the other two being the work horses?   

I'm still confused about whether Android supports 24 bit playback well.  There seems to be some issues with 24/96 but not 24/48.  Android media file support page confirms that 48 is supported but doesn't mention 96 for flac.  I've run into a few posts that suggest that I"m wasting my time either way as the android software itself can't reproduce 24 bit signals without down sampling.         

I'm A->B'ing the Poweramp and Neutron music player apps today at work.


So far the Poweramp audio output seems more flavored, but comes with UI that is more user friendly and easier to customize.  The Neutron produces a cleaner sounding signal but is much harder to customize due to a vastly more complicated UI.  Both handle gapless playback well.   

[MeltMe]

never heard of RockBoxing, gonna look into it.   thanks Terry.  I've had a Archos 8 GB player for a few years now, natively supports FLAC, but isn't gapless.   I'm happy with it though.

[nab]

My final verdict is that the Neuron Player works the best for me.  It has the best audio tweaking tools, but also plays well neutrally. 

After a week or so playing around with using my phone as my only pmp, I've decided that it may be the route to go for me.  Battery life drain hasn't been nearly as dire as I predicted from the outset, even when driving my Grado 225's without a separate powered headphone amplifier.  I can finally deliver a pure, high definition, digital signal to my receiver via the HDMI output on my phone, that plays gaplessly, something which my WD TV Mini wasn't able to do. 

After installing a 32 GB SD Mini in my phone, I've effectively doubled the space I had available on my now defunct Cowan S9, and for only $30 for a sandisk class 10.  If there are any defects in delivering 24 bit flac accurately (something my WD Mini and Cowan S9 couldn't do at all), I can't hear them.  I've been pleased with playback of 24 bit files both on my system at home and on the go in the car and can hear extra clarity in 24 vs. 16 bit filesets from the same source.       


Don't know how it will work on all Android phones, but works just fine on my Droid X2.