MP3 Players

[suzsv650]

Anyone Recommend a decent large capacity MP3 player appart from Ipod's?

Needing one for the car you see...

[the_lone_wolf]

More than happy with my 120GB Zune here, perhaps the only thing I want for is a button in the Zune software that takes you straight to the song that's playing, but i can live without it considering the player has a much nicer screen and better looking interface than my iPod video

**braces for the apple fanbois**

[pookie]

+1 for the 120gb

Bigger screen..decent battery life

More than happy with my 120GB Zune here, perhaps the only thing I want for is a button in the Zune software that takes you straight to the song that's playing, but i can live without it considering the player has a much nicer screen and better looking interface than my iPod video

**braces for the apple fanbois**

[John 675]

the creative range seems quite good.. like the zens?

[xXBADGERXx]

There was a Philips at a greatly reduced price in Argos at the weekend , had a screen on it in colour , although I suspect it is the same base unit as the Creative Zen mentioned above .

[gettin2dizzy]

Why not an Ipod? Best out there.

[missyburd]

More than happy with my 120GB Zune here,
120GB? :shock: :shock: :shock: I didn't realize these things held that much lol

I have a little aigo which hold 2gig and I thought that was fab when I got it :oops:

[northwind]

I like my 60gb Creative Zen, it's not really big enough and the interface is occasionally a bit poor (frinstance it lists every band that starts with The under T, poor show) but it's simple to use and has some nice tricks. On holiday its USB hub feature's great- I can save files off my camera onto the drive, which was good at the AR with 12gb of videos and photos...

[Jester666]

Why not an Ipod? Best out there.

Are you ready to be verbally assaulted by Mr "I hate anything to do with Apple including the fruit as it has the same name" Soulkiss? :lol:

I also like my iPod!

[northwind]

It can only be a matter of time.

[gettin2dizzy]

Are you ready to be verbally assaulted by Mr "I hate anything to do with Apple including the fruit as it has the same name" Soulkiss? :lol:

I also like my iPod!
It can only be a matter of time.

He knows he's wrong. It's only because he doesn't understand them ;)

[SoulKiss]

You called?

Personally, as someone who has a 30GB and a 60GB player, Anything over about 8GB is overkill - I once loaded the 30GB up fully then spent my entire trip pressing the skip forward button - I think I listened to one track in total.

I now think that I average at about 5 GB at any one time - although the 60 GB one I have also can record video and has a big screen, so is fine for watching video, so it usually has about 5 or 10 GB of video on it too.

So my MP3 player owning history.

Sony D-NE1 - Portable CD Player that can play MP3s burned to CD.

This meant that I could have 700Mb of MP3's with me - which was huge in those days.......

Sony Memory Stick Walkman NW-MS7 64 MB (soon upped to 256MB)

Got this cheap as a bundle when I bought a laptop - one of the 1st removeable (ie non-Flash) media MP3 (ok ATRAC3) players there was.

Sony Ericsson HBM-30 - 1GB

Combined MP3 player and Bluetooth Headset - again a 1st.

Creative Zen Touch 30GB

Nice, solid player - unfortunatly encumbered by MTP to control the transfers, I had misunderstood what the firmware upgrade they brought out which introduced that actually did - I thought it have USB functionality.

Cowon A3 60GB

More PMP (Personal Media Player) - this thing does it all, Video-In, Video-Out, USB-Host (can move files on and off of other USB devices, all in all a nice piece of kit.

Cowon S9 16GB

The new shiney one :) - Small, Light, 55 hours playback, Bluetooth Stereo, AMOLED screen makes it VERY nice to watch.
Personally I cannot praise the Cowon players enough.

For reviews and info on non-ipods, try www.anythingbutipod.com (http://www.anythingbutipod.com) and go into their forums.

[keithd]

Personally, as someone who has a 30GB and a 60GB player, Anything over about 8GB is overkill - I once loaded the 30GB up fully then spent my entire trip pressing the skip forward button - I think I listened to one track in total.




see the beauty of an ipod is you can actually select which album you want to hear...its amazing. try one...;)

[SoulKiss]

see the beauty of an ipod is you can actually select which album you want to hear...its amazing. try one...;)

If you are going to listen to it album by album, go back to Vinyl Keithy-me-boy

I find VERY few albums that I ever want to listen to at a sitting, so I usually just chuck on 40 or so tracks that will work well in shuffle mode.

And when I get bored, I dump them and put on another 40

Simple really.....

[keithd]

If you are going to listen to it album by album, go back to Vinyl Keithy-me-boy

.....

i've tried...but can i find a personal record player anywhere? can i flip as like...

this was just too bulky...

http://modculture.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/11/02/penny_record.jpg

[suzsv650]

Thanks guys. Some good MP3 Players but they are quite expensive compared to the Ipod’s.

[SoulKiss]

Thanks guys. Some good MP3 Players but they are quite expensive compared to the Ipod’s.

Whats the price of freedom ?

[hovis]

If you are going to listen to it album by album, go back to Vinyl Keithy-me-boy

Simple really.....

i think the needle may jump a bit when im on the treadmill,

[the_lone_wolf]

Thanks guys. Some good MP3 Players but they are quite expensive compared to the Ipod’s.

but you said you don't want an ipod, so why compare the two?:confused:

[suzsv650]

Just trying to get the best mp3 player for the best money! didn’t necessarily want a ipod as everybody’s got one!

[keithd]

Whats the price of freedom ?

:smt040:smt040:smt040:smt040

that genuinely made me laugh out loud!

im sure it wasnt meant entirely as a joke either...

[startrek.steve]

Ok not in the same storage size bracket, but I totally love my Sandisk E280, 4GB onboard flash & 1GB on the sd slot. Battery life is amazing! Its gone flat once in 18 months, and its only plugged into the USB long enough to delete old podcasts & add new ones (around 10 mins a week)


Steve

[SoulKiss]

:smt040:smt040:smt040:smt040

that genuinely made me laugh out loud!

im sure it wasnt meant entirely as a joke either...

Its semi serious...... and the other semi-bit was just for you :)

[Jabba]

Here you go (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-NWZ-S639FB-Video-Player-Tuner/dp/B001FB56PC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1232446698&sr=1-3) :-D

Got one for Chrimbo. Excellent..... syncs with Windows Media player and D & D from Explorer.

Plays videos and BBCiPlayer downloads too.

[hovis]

i got a matsui thingy

its got abou 400 songs on it, and has room for lots more

£10 from curry.

"does what it says on the tin"

[suzsv650]

Here you go (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-NWZ-S639FB-Video-Player-Tuner/dp/B001FB56PC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1232446698&sr=1-3) :-D

Got one for Chrimbo. Excellent..... syncs with Windows Media player and D & D from Explorer.

Plays videos and BBCiPlayer downloads too.


This looks superb! £97 for 16GB and the quality looks excellent too. Have you tried the SensMe Feature yet? Any good?

[The Guru]

Ive got a Creative Zen Vision M 30gb which Ive had for a few years.. works pretty well.. and the HDDs at least double that now.

[Jabba]

Have you tried the SensMe Feature yet? Any good?

I've tried it in as much as it seems to work seamlessly as files are uploaded. Seems to get the categories right too.

Sound quality is excellent even with the standard earphones - better than my kids' iPod earphones.

Can't fault it - even the screen is good and perfectly watchable.

[Dicky Ticker]

I bought a cheap Phillips for ON the bike as whatever you are listening to is effected
by wind noise,OK only 2gb but still holds 20+ playing hours,due to being cheap I'm not fussed if it gets broken/wet or damaged[Halfords 1/Price sale]
I have an i-pod with travelsound speakers for portable listening [no bigger than a large mobile but much better sound reproduction] ideal for when you are away from home or in the car without wires dangling.

You pays your money and makes your choice

[Ceri JC]

Ok not in the same storage size bracket, but I totally love my Sandisk E280, 4GB onboard flash & 1GB on the sd slot. Battery life is amazing! Its gone flat once in 18 months, and its only plugged into the USB long enough to delete old podcasts & add new ones (around 10 mins a week)


Steve

My gf has the 8GB version and loves it. Very small, nice interface, light, clip built in so good for exercise, no DRM nonsense, good battery life and cheap. I have a Creative 4gb Zen stone plus. I've used the larger ones creative players and they're what I'd go for if I needed a bigger one. The zen stone is easily browseable (although usually I have it on shuffle) and incredibly robust. I've fallen on mine skateboarding countless times and it's not even scratched.

As to people who think they have to have 32GB "as a minimum": The world has come a long way from the £130 32mb players I started with. Once you've used one of those for a few years you'll find 1GB more than adequate. :D

[gettin2dizzy]

Whats the price of freedom ?
79p a track on Itunes ;)

[SoulKiss]

79p a track on Itunes ;)

I find www.thepiratebay.org (http://www.thepiratebay.org) can beat that price hands-down :)

[Jester666]

Gotta agree with you there Dave! :thumbsup:

BTW Did you like your new "name"? :lol:

[the_lone_wolf]

Once you've used one of those for a few years you'll find 1GB more than adequate. :D

not when you have ~60GB of music and another 20 of video that you like to carry with you:smt019

[SoulKiss]

BTW Did you like your new "name"? :lol:

That was a new name?

:p

[Ceri JC]

not when you have ~60GB of music and another 20 of video that you like to carry with you:smt019

Out of interest, what quality/format is most of your 60GB of music in and how many times would you say you've listened to the average (not your favourite) album on it? I'm not criticising, I'm genuinely interested: I'm really into music and have a reasonably large vinyl collection and an above average sized CD collection, but even if I MP3'd all of that at 320kbps VBR, I'd probably only have about 30GB. Do you just download/add albums that you only like/listen to one or two tracks from for completeness' sake, or add stuff that you only think is 'okay' rather than that you really like?

I tend to only use my mp3 player when walking, so video is no use to me; if I'm in an airport or on a train (God forbid), I'll have my netbook with me and use that for video.

[amnesia]

I have a 80gb iplop which replaced the 30gb Creative Zen I dropped in the gym.

The hardware is quite nice, although any function requiring the rotational part of the button doesn't work if you are wearing gloves. The use of a bespoke connector also ties you to a limited accesory range.

The software on the other hand is a different matter. I have found it to be buggy, clunky and resource-raping.
It is basically a shop-front to sell music, video and ringtones rather than an organisational tool. It also installs Quicktime on every upgrade - and that is NOT optional.
The reliance on Gracenote for album artwork is also twitchy, and sometimes forgets or changes the applied artwork - even for mainstream recordings. The way round it is to have locally stored artwork, but it takes a little effort to do this.

[the_lone_wolf]

Out of interest, what quality/format is most of your 60GB of music in and how many times would you say you've listened to the average (not your favourite) album on it?

not a lot, probably 30% i've not listened to yet, another 60% i've listened to when i got the album and filed for when i just fancy listening to a complete album from a perticular artist, the remaing 10% is stuff that i regularly listen to, ie: stuff that's in my "Music I like" playslist that gets fired up when i just want something like my own personal radio station, that playlist has about 6GB of music in it now, no idea how mnay days worth but it means there's always something to listen to that i like

I normally tend to gather music by hearing one track, or a snippet, on TV or the radio, and then finding out who they are and downloading an album, if i like it i'll find some more stuff by them, everything in the collectino is there because they've done at least one song i like, i don't download stuff or the sake of haveing all the "Now" albums ever made or anything:D - it's only my favourite artists, dire straits for example, where i've downloaded their entire discography straight off the bat (that's about 1.2GB in itself!) - but then i also have albums i got hold of because of the genre, i've got about 25 user generated albums of music from american blues festivals, cause i love genre of music - i use 320kbps, or as close as i can possibly find, because 1TB hard drives are dirt cheap - on computer speakers or normal headphones that get chucked in with the ipod or zune you won't notice much difference, but i bought a pair of sennheiser (sp?) earphones and the difference between 128 and 320 is night and day, and the difference between 192 and 320 is noticable if the original source was good

[jamesterror]

I had a Creative Zen when they came out, well had 2, then a refund. First one died after 6 months, second one wasn't used as much died after about 8 months, I got it from Boots who have a good returns policy, so they gave me a full refund. Now I have an iPod Nano, only problem I've had is its froze, and just had to drain battery and charge it up again. Its just headphones which continually **** up but its probably how they great treated, and there only a fiver.

You don't need mass storage in my opinion, 2 - 8GB is fine, and you can just switch and add songs easily.....

You want something with flash memory not a hard-drive as hard-drives are easier damaged and don't have as longer life span.

[SoulKiss]

not a lot, probably 30% i've not listened to yet, another 60% i've listened to when i got the album and filed for when i just fancy listening to a complete album from a perticular artist, the remaing 10% is stuff that i regularly listen to, ie: stuff that's in my "Music I like" playslist that gets fired up when i just want something like my own personal radio station, that playlist has about 6GB of music in it now, no idea how mnay days worth but it means there's always something to listen to that i like

I normally tend to gather music by hearing one track, or a snippet, on TV or the radio, and then finding out who they are and downloading an album, if i like it i'll find some more stuff by them, everything in the collectino is there because they've done at least one song i like, i don't download stuff or the sake of haveing all the "Now" albums ever made or anything:D - it's only my favourite artists, dire straits for example, where i've downloaded their entire discography straight off the bat (that's about 1.2GB in itself!) - but then i also have albums i got hold of because of the genre, i've got about 25 user generated albums of music from american blues festivals, cause i love genre of music - i use 320kbps, or as close as i can possibly find, because 1TB hard drives are dirt cheap - on computer speakers or normal headphones that get chucked in with the ipod or zune you won't notice much difference, but i bought a pair of sennheiser (sp?) earphones and the difference between 128 and 320 is night and day, and the difference between 192 and 320 is noticable if the original source was good

You should look at Cowon - forget your 320kbps - flac encoding is where its at, and most (if not all) of the Cowons do Flac out of the box.

[the_lone_wolf]

You should look at Cowon - forget your 320kbps - flac encoding is where its at, and most (if not all) of the Cowons do Flac out of the box.

i never said i didn't have flac copies on the computer too;)

the difference between 320kbps mp3 and flac isn't enough for me to justify getting my hedphone wires in a twist about tbh...

[gettin2dizzy]

I find www.thepiratebay.org (http://www.thepiratebay.org) can beat that price hands-down :)
You can't complain about DRM and then openly admit to downloading music for free! It wouldn't be like that if people like you didn't abuse it :rolleyes:

[SoulKiss]

You can't complain about DRM and then openly admit to downloading music for free! It wouldn't be like that if people like you didn't abuse it :rolleyes:

Its all down to freedom :)

Besides if I find something I really like I go buy the CD.

[the_lone_wolf]

You can't complain about DRM and then openly admit to downloading music for free! It wouldn't be like that if people like you didn't abuse it :rolleyes:

except DRM doesn't work, there is NO widely used system out there that hasn't been cracked or broken, usually within days if not hours of it being unveiled

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/steal_this_comic.png

[gettin2dizzy]

except DRM doesn't work, there is NO widely used system out there that hasn't been cracked or broken, usually within days if not hours of it being unveiled


Thankfully, most people aren't capable of that! Itunes are dropping DRM completely now.

I used to use Sonys, but their software was dreadful! And having 30gb of music and no scroll wheel = total waste of time.

[the_lone_wolf]

Thankfully, most people aren't capable of that! Itunes are dropping DRM completely now.

except that apple still embeds each track with the uniquely identifiable email address you use for your account:

http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/13/036211

:rolleyes:

[gettin2dizzy]

That doesn't surprise me. Remember the Sony root kits? haha!

[the_lone_wolf]

That doesn't surprise me. Remember the Sony root kits? haha!

the whole root-kit debacle is why sony and their subsiduaries are on my **** list

that includes anything from SonyBMG and anything using their Proprietry Blu-Ray format too, if they want to treat paying customers like crap i'm not interested in supporting their company

[gettin2dizzy]

the whole root-kit debacle is why sony and their subsiduaries are on my **** list

that includes anything from SonyBMG and anything using their Proprietry Blu-Ray format too, if they want to treat paying customers like crap i'm not interested in supporting their company
Yet they aren't exactly innocent themselves ;
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,23473048-5014239,00.html

[Spokey]

This looks superb! £97 for 16GB and the quality looks excellent too. Have you tried the SensMe Feature yet? Any good?

I have a similar Sony one ( mine also has a radio ) - sound quality is awesome, battery life is excellent - very easy to use ( drag and drop like another hard drive )
Plays MP4 movies ( I have Surfs up and Cars on mine at present ) which are quite watchable - even better with a big magnifying glass ... :mrgreen:
Rugged and well made - highly recommended

Spokey

[DMC]

Whatever player you get, dont forget to invest in some decent fones. I recommend Ultimate Ears 'Super-Fi 5 Pro'. Will seriously improve your listening pleasure.