If you could design the ultimate personal media player (UMP?), what features would it have?
Size?
UI?
Chipset(s)?
inputs?
Outputs?
features?
 
I have 3 players now, a sonyX, clip+, and a 2Gtouch.
 
Outside of the hifiman HM-801, (witch is pushing it for portable) seems most DAP's are a collection of compremises in on way or another.
 
My personal UMP:
Basically an IPOD Touch, 64 or more MB. ONLY:
able to play FLAC
external pause play and skip forward/back buttons ( like the sony X)
Line out without resorting to a dock like connector ( something like the Flo 2 )
Balanced ouput option on the HO and LO
digital out ( either optical or other ) for use with external DAC/amp  ( like the new JH-3A or desktop set up )
Much better amp on HO, more like the sonyX
a removable mini SD card ( like the CLIP+ only with more seemless integration)
 
While the Hifiman does address a lot of these issues, the UI is crude, it is big, It is more just a dedicated music player, witch is a plus for a lot of people, but I love the swiss army like coolness of my touch ( just not fond of the SQ at all ). Plus the mifiman's internal and swappable amp card is a really cool feature, but i think some would prefer a smaller player, w/o the amp, to give more freedom in choosing an external amp. and longer battery life.
 
For a dedicated player, i love my clip BTW.
 
What would yours look like?
 
 

Mine would look like Angelina Jolie

Quote:

bennyboy71 said:

Mine would look like Angelina Jolie

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nice! but that brings up a whole new set of possible "features" mine would be more thi Milla Jojosovich.... little more portable.....

There are already quite a few threads on this, but meh.
 
Quote:

h22 said:

Basically an IPOD Touch, 64 or more MB. 

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Not much space though huh?
 
I'll admit I want something like an iPod Touch. I like an app store to mess around with. I'd be satisfied if it had Android and could go into the marketplace.
As much as I'd like a PMP to look like Jolie, I don't think it would be practical. It would bring about so many jokes. "Dude, Angelina Jolie is in your pocket isn't she? I see that bulge. Are you at least having fun?"
I very much like the look of the Zune HD, but Android on a Zune would be sacrilege. But Brett Farve is on the Vikings...
I'd like a 128GB SSD in it.
A nice amp inside would be very nice. I wouldn't mind some extra thickness for that.
The battery should last a transpacific flight.
I should be able to pay for it with massages.

I'll just make one up - the 'TP3'. It'd be creme/white with TP3 in orange on the back. It'd sound extremely good and have a microsd slot up to 100Gigs., and a touchscreen. and a line out. that's all.

My ideal?
 
Defaults to a watch/calendar display.  Comes with a nice watchband. Still has a 3" screen or better. Has a nice curved shape that wraps landscape around your forearm.  Has 3G/4G for access to my media collection on the cloud no matter where I am.  Optional Zune Pass for music I don't already own.  Sounds as good as my SFlo-2 line-out amped to my Sennheiser HD595s, no matter what headphones I'm wearing.  Projects movies as 3D holograms with no screen required.   Uses ASL for control.
 
Maybe next year.       

Second-generation Sony X with slightly rearranged hardware buttons and AT LEAST 128GB of memory (my library in lossy AAC is over 140GB now... sigh).
Rockbox would be great, but i'm fine with X original firmware as well.

Gapless playback.  That's my number one concern.  If it doesn't have gapless playback for all supported file types, including the lossy files, I don't want it no matter how good it is otherwise.

Quote:

4dthinker said:

My ideal?
 
Defaults to a watch/calendar display.  Comes with a nice watchband. Still has a 3" screen or better. Has a nice curved shape that wraps landscape around your forearm.  Has 3G/4G for access to my media collection on the cloud no matter where I am.  Optional Zune Pass for music I don't already own.  Sounds as good as my SFlo-2 line-out amped to my Sennheiser HD595s, no matter what headphones I'm wearing.  Projects movies as 3D holograms with no screen required.   Uses ASL for control.
 
Maybe next year.       

Click to expand...

Sounds nice. Put my name down for one too.
 

Interesting thread, I have been considering this since I joined head-fi. Many PMP's have been released since then, some close to my "UMP," but none quite there yet.
 
In the end, my UMP would be pretty similar to OP's:
 
[size=medium]-20+ hours battery life
-ID3 tag functionality*
-external physical buttons (lock, volume, <, play, >)
-multiple on-the-go playlists*
-drag-and-drop file transfer functionality*
-line-out (s/pdif output a bonus)
-expandable memory slot (microSD)
-replayGain support*
-gapless playback*[/size]
[size=medium]-not an iPod[/size]
[size=medium]-reliable/responsive UI experience[/size]

I want only DX100 with 20+hours battery life and maybe a 2 inch screen,dont need the 3.7 one as i have a 5.3 in my Samsung Note.

Quote:

musicday said:

I want only DX100 with 20+hours battery life and maybe a 2 inch screen,dont need the 3.7 one as i have a 5.3 in my Samsung Note.

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+1

1 TB SSD or go home. 

32GB + SDXC-slot
>30h real battery life while playing flac 
no ******* touchscreen
tactile buttons
full file support for flac and ogg
no useless video-crap 
 
basically a modernized sansa fuze. 

- waterproof titanium body
- powered by AA batteries, use enough of them to get around 30 hours of playback
- oldfashioned LCD, with backlight
- buttons, no touchscreen
- volume wheel
- at least one (full size) SDXC card slot
- support for mp3 and FLAC
- gapless playback
- support for a decent inline remote, like those used on Minidisc portables
- folder and tag-based navigation
- mass storage, drag&drop
- standby mode like on the Sony PCM-M10 (effectively offering instant on while not needing a recharge for months when sleeping)
- good sound quality
- good volume: have an option to evade EU volume cap, either by some region settings, or sell without headphones like it is done with recorders