MP3 Players

[AnarchyAo2]

I currently own no CDs, and never have owned a CD player, because I listen to music on my PC. Though, its really annoying to not own a portible music player because I'm limited to listening to music on my PC. And the future of portiable music seems to be leaning toward MP3 players, and not CD players. I was wondering if it would be a smart investment to just buy a MP3 player, besides building up a CD collection? Does anyone here own a MP3 player, if so, what do you think about it? What are some good Hard Disk (Drive?) MP3 players?

[cartoonfox]

all you need to know is that one special word...



iPod ^-^

comes in 5, 10, 20, 40 and i think 60GB now as well, you can store all the data you ever need, all the music you ever need, and apple are kind enough to let you pc folk use it on your pc too ^-^
i have a 20GB and i love it! the design is just the simplest sexyest thing ever. you'll fall in love as soon as you get your hands on one. and everyone around you will be jealous.




peace :7up:

[wes9000]

i love my 40gb iPod.

nothing like carrying around 7,000 songs in my pocket.


i've had it since January. and actually if you buy the warranty with it from an apple store, you can just get it replaced for free.



the new color screen ones are very nice

[Blackhawk]

Creative also has some really decent MP3 players as well. I couldn't see myself forking over so much money for an Ipod, they look nice but Creative's are honestly just as good technically if not maybe a little better. I'll probably be getting myself a Creative zen or something in the next couple of months.

[Groover McNab]

I love my iPod. Haven't had any problems with it in 2 years and I've dropped it on concrete a couple of times. Not intentionally.

[cartoonfox]

same here, i've had mine well over a year and no problems with the battery att all, my biggest problem right now is which song to play next ^-^

must just be a few bad batches that have the dodgy battery





peace :7up:

[AnarchyAo2]

Well, I'm on a windows 98 machine, so I can't use iPod. I was looking at iRiver's iHP120 (20 gb mp3 player), and it seemed really nice with the LCD remote, voice recording, built in fm radio, BUT they took them off the market and replaced them with the H300 series. The US version is a crappy ass version of the euro one. The euro version seems really nice with video capibities, usb on the go (you can transfer songs from other people's HD's onto your iRiver) and the remote...but the US version has none of those becuase they wanted the price cheaper >:\

Also, I'd upgrade my PC up to XP but its 399mhz, and I don't think it could handle it. Plus, I really don't want to put any money into a 7 year old computer, but I really want a MP3 player.

****
Another thing, I'd rather pay more money for a nice MP3 player that is durable and is worth my money, then one that is cheap.

[Pontemonti]

I have the iRiver iHP-120 and I totally love it. The remote is just awesome. If you want the best hard-drive MP3 player there is, get an iRiver :D I would say get the H320, but I don't know what the difference is between the US and Europe. You can always import one from Europe... :)
They still sell the H120 (same model, different name) here. Not a bad buy at all, and a bit cheaper than the H320. But then you don't get that nice color LCD screen, the USB host feature, etc...

iPod-lovers will pick on you because the iRiver doesn't look as good as their iPod, but when you tell them that it sounds better they will hopefully shut up ;)

[AnarchyAo2]

the features on the european verison of the iriver 300 series are really cool. The us version doesn't have usb on the go, and video capiblities. I may have to import one for myself, but I heard that the warrenty is invalid if I do that. I'm just wondering why the europeans get the cool stuff this time?! We americans always get all the neat gadgets!

[Pontemonti]

video capabilities? the only thing it can do is to show bmp and jpg files...no videos. if you import a european player you will probably have to return it to europe if anything happens to it.

as for why the europeans get the cool stuff this time...if that's the case, then it's about time. I want a ds but it hasn't been released yet (wouldn't surprise me if it isn't out before summer, even though they say it will be released in the spring). So I'm getting one from the us instead :perv:

[benzo]

i have a Dell Jukebox 20G; its not as sexy as the iPods but it does the same thing for half the price.

[Denart]

i love my 40gb iPod.
i've had it since January. and actually if you buy the warranty with it from an apple store, you can just get it replaced for free.


how much does the warranty cost and how long does the warranty last? (or does it go by battery usage?)

thanks

I too am looking for an Mp3 player.
Or least a CD/MP3 player because you can fit about 140 songs per CD

[Profil]

I got the oldest ipod <3
but its broken. Either it got to have the light on all the time, or I got to have it of all the time. But I dropped it at least 10-20 times.

[fukifino]

I've got one of the second gen iPods (the first with the touch wheel instead of the moveable one). Personally, I love it. I had a Creative Nomad Jukebox (6 gig thing, about the size of a regular portable Discman) and I really didn't like it. The controls were kinda clunky, the software interface blew, and it was too large/heavy to comfortably fit in a pocket.

The iPods are small, light, have a very nice interface in iTunes, and have a very easy to use and intuitive interface (barring the change to gen 3 iPods).

If you can afford one of the new gen 4 iPods, I highly reccommend it. They've gone back to the old interface on the player, added a doc and move the controls around, and overall seem to have improved on an already solid design. Plus, the storage space on the new ones is outstanding.

As for the battery issues, I know that you shouldn't really have to do it this way, but there are plenty of sites out there that show how to replace your battery for cheap.

Anyways, that's just my opinion. I encourage you to try out a bunch of them. Just make sure to consider where you'll be using it the most. (I had my Nomad when I lived in NY and had to walk everywhere...bleh...iPods are much more comfortable when walking around.)

[AnarchyAo2]

I'll have about $500 saved up by next tuesday (Not bad for 4 weeks eh?), so I'd rather pay for good quality mp3 player, then a cheap one that may be worse. I'm trying to debate between the newest ipod or the iriver H100 series (The H300 series seems lame because I don't even take pictures so what do I need a picture viewer for? I'd rather want the lcd remote). Hmm...decisions...

[Pontemonti]

Well...

iRiver H120:
+ Awesome remote (I never use the actual player to do anything)
+ 16 hours battery time. Not sure if that's correct or not, but I have never run out of battery. On the other side, I always recharge it when I have used it (almost every day), so no big deal.
+ Great inputs and outputs (dialog + analog in/out, built-in mic).
+ FM Radio
+ Plays Ogg Vorbis.
- The interface isn't that intuitive. You will have to spend 5 minutes reading the manual to understand how it works. Big deal.
- A little big bigger than the iPod. On the other side, you will most likely put it somewhere in a pocket and use the remote. If the size scares you, you should get something like an iPod mini or a flash memory player instead.
- You can't record FM Radio to the HD (it's a hardware issue and it will never be fixed...)

iPod:
+ A little bit smaller, and looks better.
+ More intuitive interface, or at least that's what they say. I have never tried, so what do I know? :)
+ Crap like games and calendar? Get a PDA instead...
- Newest generation has 12 hours battery time (the one before that had 8h I believe). It's still not as much as H120's 16h.
- No radio?
- Inputs? Outputs?

[fukifino]

Not that I'm trying to pimp the iPods (iRiver does look pretty sweet and gets pretty good reviews), but it also has a remote. I rarely use the controls when out walking too.

*edit*
Just noticed the iRiver remote has an lcd...badass.

[Pontemonti]

Not that I'm trying to pimp the iPods (iRiver does look pretty sweet and gets pretty good reviews), but it also has a remote. I rarely use the controls when out walking too.

*edit*
Just noticed the iRiver remote has an lcd...badass.
Yeah, if I would have to choose only one thing I like the most with the iRiver, it would be the remote. I believe it can do everything that you can do on the player...except show text files :D
The iPod is prettier, a bit smaller and probably easier to use, though. I guess it all depends on what you are going to use it for and how you are going to use it :)

[AnarchyAo2]

Yeah, I think I'm going to buy the H120. Ipod does seem like a safe buy, but I've heard, and read so many positive things about the H120 that I don't think its a rip. Come next tuesday, I'll be ordering a H120.

[fukifino]

Cool. Let us know what you think of it. CNet's review makes me want one, even though I'm not in the market for a new one, hehe.

[bara]

weird how this topic came up just as i came up with the idea of buying one...

Anyhoo, i bought a Creative Muvo NX, 128mb, 129 euro.

used it for a day now, it's good. i've yet to figure out how to make it comfortable to use with ze silly small earphones, my ears repel those things.
has basically one button for on\off\play\pause, and then a scroll button for options. there's an equalizer with buncha presets, "Rock sounds pretty good. (dunno if they all have this stuff, never used mp3 players before), and all sorts of other fancy options.

it has a microphone for voice recording and a whole bunch of other options, i'm not really interested in anything else than playing music, so for that this player works just fine.

it's very small and very lightweight, plus it has a little clip, i keep it clipped to my belt.

[taíno]

Hi everyone,

I bought and iRiver H120 for my daughter in her birthday, and I can tell you that is just amazing.
The batery last for 4-5 days in average use -4 to 5 hours a day- the remote is quite good, the original earphones are a little big for us -we are short peopble :-) - so I bought another ones -sonny-.
She use it everyday, recording classes, listen to the radio...
Even though I am a mac lover I choose iRiver over iPod because:
1.- Price, the H120 is 50 bucks cheaper than a similar iPod -in capacity I mean-.
2.- Features, to use the iPod as a recorder you have to buy one mic from a third part. To use the iPod as a radio you have to do the same, the iPod doesn't came with a carring case.
3.- iRiver hasn't has batery problems at least not in the magnitude of the iPod

My only complain is because of the lack of software for the iRiver if you are using a Mac as a host.
Anyway, you can write an appleScript application to copy from a folder in iTunes to the iRiver.

[Denart]

hmm, why a $300 iPod?
Well, I know it's "in style" and can hold tons n' tons of songs
BUT,
It's expensive!
It can't play CD's! (I don't want to go through the inconvience of uploading a CD I just borrowed from the library to listen to it)
The battery life is really short!! (and the replacements are a hassle)

I think a better alternative would be the mp3 cd players (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0001HAFAW/qid=1103408170/sr=8-2/ref=pd_csp_2/103-1124015-7645405?v=glance&s=electronics&n=507846).
Just burn your Mp3's to a CD (it can hold about 120 songs)
and you get around 60 hours of battery life. Uses AA batteries.
It only costs $40!!


Just my thoughts
:D

[Pontemonti]

Why an MP3 CD player?

Sure, I have lots of audio CDs at home. But do I like to take all of them with me wherever I go? Absolutely not. Not only do they take an insane amount of space (where am I supposed to put them? in my pockets? my backpack would work, but sometimes it is filled with lots of school stuff and at other times I don't even carry it with me), but I also don't want to risk losing or scratching them. The alternative is to burn "backup copies" of every single cd, but then I will need to store all of them somewhere. Or I could rip every CD to a compressed format (I prefer Ogg Vorbis, but MP3 would also work) and then burn a CD with a few albums on.
But instead of all that hassle with CDs, I can just store a whole lot of albums on my harddrive player. Mine is 20 GB so I believe I can store somewhere around 200 albums in decent quality (~192 kbps) on it...depending, of course, on how long these albums are. With an MP3 CD player, I would have to be carrying around 25 CDs to do the same thing. Yuck!
And if I want to store something else but music that works fine too. Easiest thing in the world to plug it in and copy a file or two...burning a cd for the same thing isn't the way to do it. Ok, so there are USB memories, but an MP3 player doubles as that, so you won't need one :)

Battery life short? The 16-or-so hours I can get out of my H120 works fine for me...I've never had a problem with that, and I've had it for close to a year now. Just plug it in and recharge it when you're not using it...doesn't hurt the battery - which is supposed to last for years.

[AnarchyAo2]

Alot of people say the iRiver's earphones are too big (And probably are way too big for me, because I have incrediably small ears), whats some other good earphones? Also, are there any accessories that you guys recommend that I have?

[Pontemonti]

For the iRiver, you don't really need any accessories :) Unless you want a better microphone, or some neat cables for input/output to a receiver.
The earphones aren't the best...so I got myself a pair of Porta Pros...I like them...not too expensive, and they sound pretty good.
My father has got The Plug and he says they're good. I don't know a lot about them, but they're supposed to be pretty good if you want the in-ear plug type of phones.
Sure, you can get some Shure phones instead...if you can or want to cough up the money, that is :) I guess it depends on how sensitive your ears are, and what bitrate you intend to play on the player. Wave files are of course to be perferred in that case :D

Look around the Internet for prices on Koss phones...they vary quite a bit - at least here in Sweden.
Koss Porta Pro (http://www.koss.com/koss/kossweb.nsf/02ProductDetailCall?ReadForm&Portable+Stereophones^PORTAPRO)
Koss The Plug (http://www.koss.com/koss/kossweb.nsf/02ProductDetailCall?ReadForm&Portable+Stereophones^THEPLUG)

[Denart]

you make some really good points Pontemonti! Thanks

You continue my contemplation of mp3/CD vs mp3 player....
Price is a BIG factor...


:bashful:

[AnarchyAo2]

Yeah, I got a job, and I first intended on making a new PC, but I thought, why the hell am I wasting my money? I'll just get one next year when I go off the college. So that left me with $2,000 of money to blow. So, now I'm getting an MP3 player (So I can listen to music while doing art), a french easil, and some oil paint stuff.

[Pontemonti]

Price is hard to do something about :\

There are some pretty cheap flash memory players...with 512 MB memory you can have like 5 albums (around 60 minutes each) in pretty good quality (~192 kbps). And if you cut down on the quality and use WMA format instead, you can probably double that. That's pretty decent if you will have access to a computer so you can change albums/songs regularly. The advantage compared to an mp3/cd player is size...and you don't have to burn any CDs...
But still...for an mp3/cd player you can carry around LOTS of music...the only problem is that you will have to carry it around. A small flash-memory mp3 player is much more portable...I don't know about battery life for them...I guess that can vary quite a lot.

There are other hard-drive based players than the iRiver H120 and iPod...check these out. disclaimer: I have no idea of how good/bad these are...but check 'em out. and read reviews!

Creative Zen Touch (http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=214&product=10274)
Apple iPod (http://www.apple.com/ipod/)
iAudio M3 (http://eng.iaudio.com/zeroboard/product_M3_over.php?bmenu=p&id=cw5000)
Asono HD players (http://asono.com/en/go/i/20/m/cat/cid/12)
Rio Karma (http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/item_main_Rio.asp?model=261)
Sony NW-HD1 (http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=OROnR2cgckmnBSbl-JStTCgw2OJMiOt8UR0=?ProductSKU=NWHD1KIT#)
Samsung YH-920 (http://product.samsung.com/cgi-bin/nabc/product/b2c_product_detail.jsp?eUser=&prod_id=YH920GS%2fXAA)
Sharp HR-GB201 (http://www.sharp.co.uk/products/product.asp?id=927)
Thomson Lyra.2850 (http://www.rcaaudiovideo.com/Cultures/en-US/ModelDetail.html?PCI=Lyra+Hard+Drive+Players&ProductID=RD2850)
Archos HD players (http://www.archos.com/products/fam_mp3_music.html)
Philips HDD120/17 (http://www.consumer.philips.com/consumer/catalog/catalog.jsp?fhquery=fh_secondid%3Dhdd120_17_us_con sumer%26fh_location%3D%2F%2Fconsumer%2Fen_US%2Fcat egories%3Ccatalog_us_consumer%2Fcategories%3Cporta ble_entertainment_gr_us_consumer%2Fcategories%3Cmp 3_players_ca_us_consumer%26&productId=HDD120_17_US_CONSUMER&activeCategory=PORTABLE_ENTERTAINMENT_GR_US_CONSUM ER&fredhopperpage=detail.jsp&language=en&country=US&catalogType=CONSUMER&proxybuster=2RXRXTCCCFZ1DJ0RMRESHQFHKFSEKI5P) (there is also a 30 gig model (http://www.consumer.philips.com/consumer/catalog/catalog.jsp?fhquery=fh_secondid%3Dhdd130_17_us_con sumer%26fh_location%3D%2F%2Fconsumer%2Fen_US%2Fcat egories%3Ccatalog_us_consumer%2Fcategories%3Cporta ble_entertainment_gr_us_consumer%2Fcategories%3Cmp 3_players_ca_us_consumer%26&productId=HDD130_17_US_CONSUMER&activeCategory=PORTABLE_ENTERTAINMENT_GR_US_CONSUM ER&fredhopperpage=detail.jsp&language=en&country=US&catalogType=CONSUMER&proxybuster=2RXRXTCCCFZ1DJ0RMRESHQFHKFSEKI5P))
TrekStor i.Beat 500 (http://www.trekstor.de/produkte/mp3-player/ibeat-500.html) (no, I don't understand much of that page...hahaha)
Vosonic VP2160 (http://www.vosonic.com/index.php?php_mode=spec&php_itemid=29) (I wonder what that battery life description means...)
MPIO HD300 (http://www.mpio.com/~mpiocom/goods/hd300.php)
MPIO HD 100 (http://www.mpio.com/~mpiocom/goods/hd100.php)


Smaller hard-drive, smaller player:

Creative Zen Micro (http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=214&product=10795)
iPod Mini (http://www.apple.com/ipodmini/)
Rio Carbon (http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/item_main_Rio.asp?model=267)
MPIO HD 200 (http://www.mpio.com/~mpiocom/goods/hd200.php)

[AnarchyAo2]

Baaaa............................................. ........I have $450 saved up, but I've gotta buy christmas presents......o well. I'll just have to wait until I get paid in 2 weeks. :[

[guggemmaneuver]

the gugg likes his!

I'd contend that every computer accessory that you obtain is going to require some adjustment on your system. In my freaky 6year old powermac g3's case, I had to actually downgrade the firmware on the ipod (a major hassle because the installer had to be run on an OS X machine) to get it to work with my Mac OS 9.2.2 system. You'd think that apple would support their own operating system but you'd be wrong. Anyhow, since doing this, I haven't had any problems and I LOVE my ipod. If you are concerned with support, I'd argue that ipod is one of the better devices to purchase. There are entire forum-style sites (ipodlounge.com) devoted to maintenance issues from which i've benefitted immensely... all without making even the first post!

And the battery question: You can actually purchase a replacement battery that has a longer life than the original for around $25 (see www.macsales.com if you don't believe me.) and you can install it yourself. Granted I've never tried it, but i've only had my ipod for about 4 months and the battery life expectancy is around 2 years! If you've been inside your computer's case something like this shouldn't really be too much of a problem.

Basically, I think that because the ipod is a force in the marketplace and very popular, you'll be able to find support for any issues that you encounter better. having 1500+ songs available is really nice--as i have something of a music addiction.

and CD's, they're very cumbersome. I have hundreds and hundreds, and I only listen to a very select few. Ripping something to mp3 or to ogg vorbis is much more economical in terms of living the minimalist lifestyle.

I'm one to talk though... I need to go put up my foot high stack of rifled LP records.

adios,
the gugg