Help me find a mp3 player

[phoenix_night]

I'm looking to buy a new mp3 player, and judging by the amount of digital music owned by CFCers, this a good place to ask for some advice.

I don't want to spend too much more than say £150 (keep ebay in mind ), and for that I'd like...

Good storage capacity - The more the better, I guess, but I don't need anything ridiculously large.
Good battery life - I want to be able to get through as much of that storage as possible without recharging. A removable battery would be a plus.
Good sound quality
Generally practical - Small, easy to use etc.

Anybody who suggests an iPod or any of its variants will be reported to the mods ASAP.

 

[GeneralZed]

Why no iPod? As far as I know, all mp3 players have good quality and the amount of storage depends on how much you want to spend, I think. But if you dont have many songs, just buy the cheapest one

 

[phoenix_night]

I wouldn't say all mp3 players are of the same quality.

I'm not buying the cheapest one as storage is important. I don't need anything like 20GB which would be excessive IMO, but I'm still talking about gigabytes not megabytes.

Oh, and iPods suck.

 

[Jeratain]

Oh, and iPods suck.

Oh yay, one of those "I want to rise about the status quo" people who thinks that boycotting popular products for no reason is sheik!

The iPod is in fact arguably the best MP3 player out there because of its durability, ease of use, easy integration with iTunes (which is great software) for both Windows and Macs, decent battery life, and no lack of accessories. You can't dismiss it as a contender, because many products don't even come close - including Creative.

The main top contender to the iPod, I would have to say, is the iRiver. Great battery life, includes a radio tuner, looks alright, but could be easier to use.

Sony is still meh, but they are trying to fight back from the abyss, and people's heads are turning.

 

[phoenix_night]

[Edit: In case I want to ask Jeratain further questions...]

blah blah blah...some rubbish about the iPod....blah....The main top contender to the iPod, I would have to say, is the iRiver. Great battery life, includes a radio tuner, looks alright, but could be easier to use.

Thanks. I'll look it up.

Apple are still bastards though.

 

[Marx]

What is important for you.
The size of the mp3player, the batterylife, the memory size, user friendly...

Maybe a good idea to buy a cellphone that can also be used as mp3player. My mobilephone subscription is till january 2006. If your subscription-end-date is approaching, you could search for interesting cellphones with mp3player compatibility as the P900, P910 and the S700i of SonyEricsson, 6230 of Nokia, and Samsung D500.
I have a SonyEricsson T630 an the batterylife is a clear benefit. The Nokia 6230 and the D500 are very popular here, so maybe you ask users of those phones, what benefits and disadvantages they experience.

 

[phoenix_night]

I have a Nokia 6230, but there's not enough memory. Currently 40mb, but I don't think it go any further than 256mb. Even if it can, I think the aboslute maximum is 1GB. I'd like some more, but there's also the issue of battery life.

 

[phoenix_night]

Q: Does WMP10 have the ability to encode in conjunction with its portable device features?

 

[Zakharov]

I recently bought a Creative mp3 player and I am very happy with it. It's only a 512MB model though (Muvo TX FM) and you seem to be looking for a hard drive player instead of a flash player.

For around £170 you can get the 20GB Zen Touch or the 5GB Zen Micro with FM radio. Alternatively the Muvo2 4GB model is about £145. Less than that and you are looking at flash players with 1GB or less.

I can't recommend any other brands as I have no experience with them.

I'm not sure of the answer to your WMP10 question as I use Creative MediaSource (included) for all of my ripping and transferring.

 

[phoenix_night]

I was recommended the Zen Micro and it looks a good player, probably at the top of my list so far. I don't need the 20GB of the Zen Touch. The only problem with the Zen Micro may be its compatibility: I read that it only supports a bitrate of up to 128. I'm not sure what I think of that yet, or if I find it acceptable.

About Creative MediaSource: Is it easy to re-encode mp3s to lower bitrates when you want to transfer? Can you place the encoded file directly onto the player (instead of creating temporary files on a HD)?

And thanks.

 

[Jeratain]

Apple are still bastards though.

Eh. I've never purchased any of my music via iTunes - I just use it to play my MP3s. It's not like Apple is saying that you can only use an iPod to play music from iTunes. They are just saying that they want their iTunes purchased music to be iPod exclusive - can't blame them for trying to keep an upper hand. Thing is, there are quite a few alternatives for purchasing music online for the iPod if you want. And you don't even have to use iTunes to work with an iPod since there are so many other third party softwares out there, including Winamp (with a plugin), Foobar (with a plugin), and a few others.

But have it as you will.

 

[Zakharov]

The only problem with the Zen Micro may be its compatibility: I read that it only supports a bitrate of up to 128. I'm not sure what I think of that yet, or if I find it acceptable.

It supports a bit-rate of 320kbps in mp3 and wma. The 128kbps example is referring to the battery life of the player. Here is a link to its specifications on Creative's website:
Zen Micro specs

About Creative MediaSource: Is it easy to re-encode mp3s to lower bitrates when you want to transfer? Can you place the encoded file directly onto the player (instead of creating temporary files on a HD)?

I'm not sure how well MediaSource does this as I don't use downloaded music, I only use MediaSource to rip my cds to wma files. However, I do know there are some 3rd party utilities out there for this kind of thing.

As long as the encoded file is supported by the player then you should be able to transfer it directly. This is definitely the case for a flash player and I would have thought it would be the same for a HDD player.

If you have any more specific questions about the Zen Micro then it would probably be best to check out their forum:
Creative's MP3 forum

Hope this helps.

 

[phoenix_night]

It supports a bit-rate of 320kbps in mp3 and wma. The 128kbps example is referring to the battery life of the player. Here is a link to its specifications on Creative's website:
Zen Micro specs

Ah! That's okay then. Incompetent reviewers were misleading me...

If you have any more specific questions about the Zen Micro then it would probably be best to check out their forum:
Creative's MP3 forum

Hope this helps.

Thanks. I'll check out those forums right away.


The iRiver looks a good player too (the 5GB model), but seems quite rare (new?) and quite a bit more expensive (around £200), so I'm still thinking about the Zen Micro.

 

[bobgote]

I have a Creative MuVo (1.5GB) which is enough for about 20 albums which is good for me. from how it's gone with me so far, i'd recommend it, but i haven't had to go long times without a charger so don't know how the battery holds up just yet.

 

[Neomega]

- can't blame them for trying to keep an upper hand.

I can!

Apple may not be bastards, but they are constantly stupid. They took the same exact mistep in the 80's, and for it were ostracized by the mainstream public PC user.

You ewould think 20 years later they would have learned.... compatibility is King!

But no, they are Apple.

 

[Paalikles]

I have the 20GB version of the clickwheel iPod myself, and so far the only disappointment is the earphones. So I ll upgrade them when I have time/cash reserved for doing it.

regarding compability:

I have been in a successful network with an apple Mac OS X running virtual PC, so I wouldnt say they dont know how to make things compatible.

Also, the iPod comes with BOTH a firewire cabel and an USB cabel. Since USB is becoming more or less standard computer equipment for new home PCs these days, I would say that iPod to PC compability is great.

Being a PC user myself, and since beginning of January also an iPod user, I have no issues whatsoever with using the iPod with the PC. Except for copying from iPod to PC, but I cant seem to copy from iPod to Mac either...weird.

I would like to give my support to iRiver as well, though I think the iPod is in a better pricerange than iRiver, and I am not sure the difference is in iRiver's favor when you weigh quality against cost for both lines.

Creative mp3 players most have decent sound, so if you dont mind having to monkey around a bit more, I d say sure why not get one of theirs.

if the iPod with 20/40GB is too large - try the iPod mini with 4GB weighing 108 grams. That is a nice size and weight for an mp3 player, and it leaves all the minidisc players in the dust....

 

[Jeratain]

I have the 20GB version of the clickwheel iPod myself, and so far the only disappointment is the earphones. So I ll upgrade them when I have time/cash reserved for doing it.

Just about every MP3 player has that issue - mainly to keep the costs down. If you want to have in-ear earbuds, you might want to look at the Shure E2c model. They are a bit pricy, but overall worth it.