Christmas Time: MP3 Player Reviews

i'm happy with my ipod

 

I'd say iPod, even if the battery life does suck (at least my 10GB does). But it has the easiest interface to use, looks the nicest, iTunes was made for it and iTunes is amazing, it's small, and it's light. Yeah, and don't get anything less than 15GB.

 

True, but not many people really need 15G+ of space. Othewise they wouldn't make them. 5G and 20G are the new standards now.

Anyone know about the quality of the DELL DJ Pocket? It looks like solid player and more than enough for the casual listener. Also, are those sites that the have selling the players reliable? I know for them to be there they must be good, but you can't compare them to a bestbuy.com for instance.

Here's Cnet's review of the Zen Micro..it's the video for it and if you play around, you'll find the reviews of other players and their videos (only a few have the video feature..the good ones)

http://reviews.cnet.com/Creative_Zen_Micro__5GB__silver_/4535-6490_7-31151927.html?tag=tab

 

And 20 gigs > 15 gigs. So you're proving my point by saying that 20 gigs is the new standard. I don't understand what point you're trying to make, lol.

 

for me 5 gb is more than enough because i don't ruthlessly put crappy music for no reason. i only put what i really need

 

There's gigs upon gigs upon gigs of great music. There's no way I can fit all that I listen to on 5. I can't everything I want on 10.

 

This looks like a pretty cool toy:
http://www.neurosaudio.com/

Besides mp3 it also supports ogg, wma and wav files. It has a built in FM
tuner which you can record to wav or mp3. You can also record using a mic
via the line-in input and transmit music to a standard FM reciever for
playback through a stereo.

The prices:
20 Gig - $249
30 Gig - $279
40 Gig - $329
60 Gig - $399
80 Gig- $449

Supposedly more codecs (FLAC) will be added in the firmware upgrades.

 

The thing is, that there are people like myself, who kinda get tired of listening to the same song over and over again. I personally like that song Lean Back by Fat Joe, but after listening to it 10 times, I don't want to be anywhere near a radio that's playing it. I also get tired of listening to the same CD a few times in a row, so why not delete the songs of one CD and put in the ones of another? I agree that it'll be less "work" with the 20 gig, but soem just plain and simple don't want to spend a lot of money on it because an MP3 player isn't their top thing one their priority list.

In order to prevent argument on music choice: My opinion on what's "good" and "bad" is pretty different from your's, I'm sure, but I'm just giving an example.

 

If your budget is around $300 I recommend this 20GB multimedia (audio, picture, video) jukebox.

http://www.dealtime.com/xPF-Archos_AV120_21778404

You can also record TV shows directly with a video recorder module that comes with it. I bought one this August and am really enjoying it!

 

I've had a 1st generation ipod since about 2 weeks after they came out. There is a reason it's the best selling portable player. The combination of itunes and the ipod is unmatched. Yes there are cheaper versions of mp3 players out there, but NONE compare.

Once you use itunes, itunes music store, and an ipod you'll simply be disappointed by any other player. It's that simple. This has been a free advertisement by a mac user

 

Chicago...the sound isn't an issue. It's a choice of what quality you want to compress your music at. That's totally up to you as the user. All you have to do is choose a higher quality. Myself i prefer 192 or above, because 128 sounds good, but not great to me.

The larger the number though, the larger amount of space they take up. Not like i care since i have a 10gb player and change my playlist every couple months or so anyways.

You will care about itunes if you get an ipod, it makes life much easier and is what really completes the whole user experience. The other issue with sound quality is the headphone and that pllies to all players. I happen to think the ear buds are okay, but i also have a nice set of sennheisser headphones too.

 

Yeah, 128 just doesn't do it. 192 should be the standard for quality MP3s.

I've got a question about the battery life. How much life (durability) does the battery have? Will it give me 10 or so hours for 10 years? Or will they just die after a few years due to memory and force you to buy a new battery? I think all of them are the Lithum kind so that shouldn't be much of a problem. But if you wish to have a longer life span, should one drain out all of it's energy and then recharge?

 

I think the batteries all vary. I've had mine about 3 years and use it on a regular basis. I just charge mine every other day or so depending on use. I've had no issues, but as you know some people have. They do have replacement batteries for the ipods, but after 3 years if mine dies, i have no issue buying a new ipod. I've definitely gotten the use out of it.

The newer ones say 10 hours before charging,(depends on settings) mine being an old one is probably more like 6 hours of straight use, but it beats the hell out of the old battery buying i used to do with my old walkman, and it beats the hell out of the rechargable batteries i had for it on life span.

I've been more than happy with everything about my ipod. i bought it at CompUSA, because i got their extended warranty of like 3 years if something went wrong. I'm not a huge CompUSA fan, but because i was worried about quality being a 1st generation ipod, i wanted more than the 1 year apple offered. They offer a no questions asked if it is broken...I've never used it, but i felt better paying the extra $50 or so....was cheap.

 

I just ordered my Zen Touch 20GB. The $100 savings versus an iPod were very important to me, but just as important is the sound quality (very highly rated) and battery life. The real key was the ~24 hours on one charge, which will be very nice. Full review will be here in 2-4 days.

 

Yeah, I've been looking at Creative...I've read some very good reviews on their sound quality.

What has me confused here with Creative is that Walmart (pretty good line of players actually) is selling the 30 gig one for $174.63 and it's 40 gig is at $218.00 (not including $20 rebate). The 4 gig Creative Muvo2 is at $198.82 (not including the $50 rebate). How can this be? A 4 gig is more expensive than the 30 gig? 30 gigs for less than 200 bucks? Could it be possible that the 4 gig will drop to like 100 bucks within the next fwe months given that the Tough has been released? Maybe the price drop is due to it's possible plan on eliminating the Muvo player and replacing it with the Touch??

 

I'd suggest going to an apple store or compusa or anywhere you can touch and feel an ipod. Use the interface, listen to them...most have songs loaded on them. Then realize that the computer interface is as good or better than the user interface of the ipod itself. It's basically a seemless computer hook-up and everything about it makes it worth a bit more. It's the best seeling player for a reason. If you stop reading reviews and go and see for yourself, you'll realize that nothing compares. yes there are cheaper players, yes some state longer battery life, but I'm telling you...none are even close to the ease of use or simplicity you'll get out of an ipod.

Go and play with an ipod, and you'll be sold.

Striker....depending on the size/thickness of HD the price can be more. The smaller ones tend to be ultra thin, so they cost more....it's a size/form factor issue. People tend to like small small things, that hold a lot. That costs a premium.

 

I've listened to the iPod and the NOMAD (predecessor to the Zen Touch) and there is clear difference in quality, as long as you use better headphones than the stuff they give you free. I could not be less concerned about interface. I know that makes me a minority but I am just more worried about quality of sound and battery life. I can get used to any interface (I used MiniDisc for a couple years) but in the end when I'm relaxing listening to music I won't be thinking about whether I used a click wheel or a verticle touch strip to get to that music. But that's just my take. I still haven't gotten my Zen Touch so we'll see if it can stand up to the one on one test versus my roommate's iPod 4th Generation.

 

scd..not to discount what you say about sound quality, but most ipods and people that use them unfortunately import them at 128...that's not high quality in my opinion. You have options of importing and I'd suggest 192 or above..they say 320 the quality get's good. It's not the player my friend it's the compression.

Enjoy the link and I'd trust audiophile as a sound source over anyone including myself. They have a respectable reputation with hi-end music components and they recommend ipods...so I'd say the quality can be as high as the sky, it's a choice of what rate you import cd's at.

http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/934/index.html