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Subject: Which MP3 Player
Posted by: GoatLocker
- Sustainer [060151121] Tue, Dec 14, 2004, 13:48
OK all, I'm finally going to take the plunge and have been reading until my head hurts.
I believe I have it narrowed down to one of three.
Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen Extra (40GB)
iRiver H140/H340 (40GB)
IPOD (40GB)(4th Generation)
The son has an IPOD and loves it.
Believe I like what I'm reading about Creative.
Don't know much at all about the iRiver and which model number is better.
Will probably use more in the car and motor home than anywhere else, so do need to look at accessories also.
Any comments or experiences would be greatly appreciated.
Did do a search on MP3 on the forum, but did not find any real opinions from people.
What do you have and do you like it and would you recommend it.
Thanks all for the help.
Cliff |
| 1 | Farn
Sustainer
ID: 451044109
Tue, Dec 14, 2004, 13:53
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I don't own one but I have heard nothing but good things about the Dell Pocket DJ. I wouldn't get the iPod. The price is too high. Its basically just the cool thing to have.
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| 2 | Tree
ID: 76471215
Tue, Dec 14, 2004, 14:01
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GL - i have the 30G Zen Extra and LOVE IT. love it love it love it.
things to consider when buying:
1. if you're going to use an online source to purchase songs (iTunes, MusicMatch, etc etc). why? because iTunes ONLY works with ipods, and nothing else, and all the other ones are usually compatabile with everything else, EXCEPT ipods.
2. the battery issue. this has been discussed ad nausem. unless they've changed, you still can't remove the ipod battery on your own. when it dies, you have to send it to Apple to get it fixed. most of the others, including the Zen Extra, you can change on your own.
3. the hip factor. ipods are for hipper-than-thou people. i'm not as cool as those f*ckers, so i got the Zen.
4. price - you do the math.
5. features - some of the newer ones even have FM radio and let you record your voice, or whatever, onto the player.
cnet.com has a lot of good info, and is a great place for research. here is the jump off page for their MP3 and digital music pages.
the professional reviews are solid, but you have to weed through the "ipod rulez, all others drool" and "ipods suck! apple sucks! buy anything but apple!" posts in the consumer section...
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| 3 | hipper-than-allhair
Sustainer
ID: 50902421
Tue, Dec 14, 2004, 17:05
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FWIW, I have an IPOD because I wanted to look cooler than all those clowns with Zen players. It worked! ;)
Goat,
You'll likely be happy with whatever you buy. Just figure out what size you need and how much you're willing to pay. I bought the 20GB because I couldn't see ever needing 40GB... I don't use my player as a storage device, so 20GB of music is more than I'll probably ever spend the time accumulating. The one thing I wish I had on my IPOD is a radio. Other than being less than ecstatic about the accompaning software I'm as happy as a clam.
As far as usage, I use it back and forth from work and home. I have an old cassette adapter that I have left over from a portable cd player, and that works just fine with my car stereo. Unless you have an audiophile quality stereo in your car, you won't need a crazy, expensive setup. It's not as cool as a radio transmitter, but then even coolness has it's limits...
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| 4 | James K Polk
ID: 151035917
Tue, Dec 14, 2004, 21:36
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One thing to add to Tree's list:
6. Accessories.
If those are important to you (as Goatlocker mentions in his initial post), that's definitely a mark in favor of the iPod. There is a huge -- and still growing -- market of peripheral devices designed for use with the iPod. Check out iPodLounge, for starters.
(I am an extremely satisfied iPod customer, and would happily pay the premium again. That was only cemented when my 50-something father asked how my iPod worked, and I handed it to him and said, "Here, play with it for 15 seconds and you'll have it all figured out." I was right.)
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| 5 | James K Polk
ID: 151035917
Tue, Dec 14, 2004, 21:46
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Honest question here: If someone was in the market for a digital music player that could store thousands of their songs, why would they care about picking up FM radio?
Just curious, because I can see where FM might be useful on a small, flash-memory player, but I can't really figure out why this gets marketed as such a great feature on a player with 20+ gigs of storage. Good grief, you're carrying around your own station!
(Now AM radio for ballgames, I would buy.)
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| 6 | Tree
ID: 510231619
Tue, Dec 14, 2004, 22:28
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well, i think FM is a neat feature. it's often the first place you hear a new song....
but you are right. i call my MP3 player "Radio Tree"...
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| 7 | allhair allstars
Sustainer
ID: 50902421
Tue, Dec 14, 2004, 23:03
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Mr. Pres,
Not sure if you're specifically asking me, but I didn't say I needed an "FM" radio, just a radio in general, specifically for sporting or other radio broadcast events. When I'm commuting home on the train late after work for example, I often wish I had a radio to catch the broadcast of my woeful Bulls.
I understand your point about the redundancy of having a secondary music source included on top of 20 or 40 GB of music... still, variety is the spice of life, and in my case the radio woundn't really be used for music.
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| 8 | GoatLocker
Sustainer
ID: 060151121
Wed, Dec 15, 2004, 09:54
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Thanks for all the replys.
Still reading and thinking (that's dangerous)
Still need to do more research on the accessory side.
That appears to be the week point for the Zen.
Had Dell on a very early list, but they came off. Can't remember why.
Still need to spend some time on the phone with the son.
He loves his IPOD.
Cliff
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| 9 | beastiemiked
ID: 4310501610
Wed, Dec 15, 2004, 10:19
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I have started my search for one as well. I'll be using it mainly during my workouts and long road trips. I'm having a tough time deciding between a flash memory or a hard drive. For those that have a mp3 player with a hard drive: What's the sound quality like? Does it skip easily?
I'd obviously rather get a hard drive based mp3 player, but if it's not feasible for me to take it to the gym then I'd rather go with the flash based ones. Any thoughts?
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| 10 | allhair allstars
Sustainer
ID: 50902421
Wed, Dec 15, 2004, 11:06
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bmd,
I bought a Nike 128MB flash player for my wife a couple years ago... you've seen it - looks a little like an egg, comes with an arm strap...
It worked well and was happy with it but I always felt limited by the amount of music I could play. Perhaps this isn't that big a deal, but I found it a hassle to remove and add new music, and was never able to do it at a moment's whim... plus, since it was for my wife but I used it as well, I found that I was always swapping music...
This is what initially prompted me to look into players with hard drives.
FWIW, I've taken my IPOD running (hand-held) and biking with no troubles at all. The G4 IPODs (and the other newer models from other manufacturers as well, I'm sure) have tremendous skip protection. I can honestly say I think I've heard my IPOD skip once, and even that might have been a glitch with the music file and not the player...
From what I've read, the platter players spin very quickly for a short period of time (a second or two) and essentially load music into a cache (flash memory?) and then play music off of that. My own experience is that my IPOD platter will spin once every four or five songs. I've read that Apple says the IPOD is safe for workouts and that movement won't damage the player, but I've also ready that some reviewers don't believe that assertion. Again, I've had no troubles at all.
Frankly, I'd go with a player that had a hard drive. One more note, some after-market sellers offer arm straps for players... here's one I'm thinking about buying...
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| 11 | GoatLocker
Sustainer
ID: 060151121
Wed, Dec 15, 2004, 12:05
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Looking at the specs on the Zen, it also has 667 hours of flash memory to go with the 40 gig hard drive.
So, I imagine what AA was talking about with the IPOD is also true with the Zen.
Getting closer to a decision, but not quite there.
Cliff
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| 12 | James K Polk
ID: 151035917
Wed, Dec 15, 2004, 13:58
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So do the players with the radio option also pick up AM? I guess I've just always seen it marketed as picking up FM.
BMD -- one option you might investigate is something I'm looking into for a flash-based player. Lexar makes something called the JumpGear-MP3, which is basically a cap that sits on one of their JumpDrive Sport flash drives and turns it into an mp3 player. (It looks like it comes packaged with a 64Mb drive.) You can find the JumpGear-MP3 for under $40, and then go ahead and buy a larger flash drive to upgrade the memory. Has to be a Lexar sport model, but you can find a 512Mb for $50, or a 1-gig for $80. So then you've got a nice big flash drive that you can use for other purposes (I got the 1-gig for work), and you can put the cap on to use it as an mp3 player.
In theory, it's pretty sweet, because you're ending up with a very flexible 1-gig flash mp3 player for $120, which I think is less than you're going pay for a dedicated player. But the reviews on the JumpGear cap are a little mixed. Definitely worth checking out, though.
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| 13 | James K Polk
ID: 151035917
Wed, Dec 15, 2004, 14:00
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Also, I've never heard my iPod skip, but I also would not want to take it along while working out. Expensive enough that I would be too freaked out about tripping or damaging it in some way.
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| 14 | GoatLocker
ID: 427272213
Fri, Dec 17, 2004, 23:20
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Well, once again thanks to all for the help.
I did it today.
Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen Extra (40GB)
Was 219 at Best Buy with a 20 rebate. Even with taxes, broke even with the best deal I could find online for the unit.
Haven't opened it yet, but will later and start loading it up.
Cliff
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| 15 | beastiemiked
ID: 262411016
Sat, Dec 18, 2004, 16:56
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Wow, a 40 gig mp3 player for only $219. Nice find. Share the details of it when you finally get around to playing with it.
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| 16 | allhair allstars
Sustainer
ID: 50902421
Sat, Dec 18, 2004, 19:50
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Goat,
I was at Best Buy today and looked at the MP3 players... checked out the Zen Extra player. It'll do everything you want and is a lot cheaper than the IPOD 40GB... A LOT cheaper... As Tree will tell you, my IPOD will get me all the dates of course, but you'll have more storage space... ah well, we all make sacrifices... ;)
Let us know how you like it...
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| 17 | GoatLocker
Sustainer
ID: 060151121
Sun, Dec 19, 2004, 11:12
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Got it charged.
Got the software loaded on the laptop and the download to the Zen begins.
Tree,
Do you use the Creative software, or by chance, have you tried Notmad Explorer by Redchairsoftware.
My thought for now is to use the Creative and then see if I want to go the other route.
Cliff
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| 18 | Tree
ID: 510231619
Sun, Dec 19, 2004, 12:00
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GL - i use the software supplied, which no doubt, is clunky. it works, but it's clunky.
it wasn't clunky enough for me to invest in Notmad, but it's definitely a to each his own sort of thing.
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| 19 | beastiemiked
ID: 4310501610
Mon, Mar 07, 2005, 11:14
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butt, I've started looking at MP3 players again. GL, how did the Zen work out for you?
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| 20 | GoatLocker
ID: 427272213
Mon, Mar 07, 2005, 22:38
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I'm real happy with it.
Bigger than the IPOD, but works just great.
Have over 3000 songs loaded and still have about 20 gig available.
Could hold a lot more, but a lot of what I loaded were ripped at higher than normal, so the files are bigger.
Normally use it in the car, motor home, or at work, so it just sets where I plant it.
Cliff
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| 21 | Guru
ID: 330592710
Sun, Jul 02, 2006, 16:31
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My daughter has/had an older model iPod (4th generation) which just suffered a hard drive crash. She would really like to replace it with something cheaper than an iPod, although her library is stored in iTunes right now.
She probably doesn't need more than 6 gigs or so, but certainly more than 1. (she currently has about 4 gigs).
I read through some of the comments above, although everything is more than a year old. I assume that there is still no reasonable way to export tune files from iTunes into a more universally playable format (i.e., MP3)?
Most of the tunes were ripped from CDs, so we could rip them again into MP3, I suppose.
Any suggestions on decent price/value options for this type of use?
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| 22 | Salt Bandit
ID: 011542816
Sun, Jul 02, 2006, 18:56
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Guru - you can convert files to mp3s in iTunes. I have an old version, but I'm assuming newer versions would be similar. Here's how I do it:
Edit - Preferences. Select the Advanced tab, then the Importing subtab. Select Import using: mp3 encoder, and pick what quality you want in the next drop box. Click OK.
After you change that setting, when you right click on a file in your library, there should be an option to convert selection to mp3. You can select the full library and right click to convert everything.
Just be warned that it will take a long time, and you'll need free hard drive space (it creates copies of the files, but doesn't delete the originals).
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| 23 | Guru
ID: 330592710
Sun, Jul 02, 2006, 20:17
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Thanks - that conversion process does work.
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| 24 | GoatLocker
Sustainer
ID: 060151121
Mon, Jul 03, 2006, 14:31
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Haven't done a lot of looking around since I bought mine, but a quick google search shows a lot of 5-6 GB players.
iRiver
Rio
Olympus
RCA Lyra
Looks like from about $120 to $140.
Don't know too much about any of them.
Biggest issue I have with my Creative Zen is lack of accessories.
Still happy with performance etc.
Probably getting my wife a 30GB Video MP3 for her birthday.
Cliff
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| 25 | Skidazl
Leader
ID: 379312323
Tue, Jul 04, 2006, 01:18
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First off GL, thank you for starting this thread, before I read this, I really only thought about getting an Ipod, but not anymore.
Now I am looking into getting the Zen sleek 20gb (photo?) player from Costco.com. They have them for 189. Anybody have any experience with this one? I don't care about the photos much, but I think the color LCD would be nice.
Thanks again for the heads up...
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