View Full Version : Best MP3 player?
Zalmoxis
12-14-2005, 06:29
What is the best MP3 player out there right now, and are there any MP3 players that are just headphones that block out sound and with no wires?
The best MP3 player at the moment is the iPod. That may change next month or next year, but the iPod still rules all. Foremost reasons are the quality of the interface on the player, and the quality of the iTunes software. And if you don't like the iTunes, clever hackers have released replacements into the wild. Try getting that sort of hacker support for your Zen Nomad or what-have-you.
As for headphones, let me get this straight -- you want noise-cancelling wireless headphones? I don't think they exist yet ... but I'd be happy to be proved wrong ...
[edit]
Just ran across this little overview. I don't know about "cool," but the interface issue is real. Forbes's take. (http://www.forbes.com/2005/12/13/apple-ipod-entertainment-1213markets02.html?partner=yahootix)
Big King Sanctaphrax
12-14-2005, 17:30
The iriver h140 was the bomb, but it's discontinued now. The new iriver isn't nearly as good for the money, unfortunately.
Craterus
12-14-2005, 17:42
http://www.futureshop.ca/multimedia/products/large/10058254.jpg ~:handball:
I`ve heard that Zen Micro is better. I believe it`s cheaper at least.
Alexanderofmacedon
12-14-2005, 19:12
The Ipod is very good. It's very easy to use, and it's simple. Unfortunetly it has a high cost, breaks easily (my friend has broken 3 of his video ipods and has since bought no more), and it has low battery life.
With the information I gathered I opted not to get an ipod. I am only 15 and I must be fruggle with the little bit of money I have. I chose the Rio Nitrus instead. It is about $100 cheaper than the mini ipod and holds 3/4's the amount of songs. It has about four more hours battery and hasn't broken yet in the 6 months that I've had it.
There are of course a few problems with the Nitrus (as with every other mp3 player). It is not organized very well. It is at times hard to navigate, but for the most part it's fine. You will have to update the Rio regularly from their site, but that's not too much of a problem either.
I have a friend who has a iRiver model, but I'm not sure which one. It's pretty good, and I would probably recomend that over the ipod for people who don't want to spend too much on a mp3 player.
Anyway, I hope I helped and good luck on finding the mp3 player just for you!:san_smiley: :san_smiley:
My iPod 3G has merrily kept me entertained musically for ages now. I had to lever it open and replace the battery once, but other than that has worked fine. iTunes is good too.
I got Creative Zen nano plus and i'm loving it. It's cheaper than iPod and has almost the same characteristics. And the battery drain is low: 36 hours of constant work.
Ja'chyra
12-15-2005, 12:25
I have the Creative Zen Touch 20Gb, had it for a year now and its been great, no problems and easy to use though the headphones are a bit pants.
I wouldn't buy an iPod as I think they are overpriced.
edyzmedieval
12-15-2005, 14:44
I want to get myself an iPod Video.
For Christmas.
I love my Creative Zen. Much more cost-effective alternatives to I-Pods.
I´ve got a Creative Muvo V200.... with 1Gb of memory, which in my opinion is just the right amount of memory of a device os this type, it allready holds enough music for a few days. I see adverts for the Ipods with 10,20, 30 Gb of memory and I wonder what the hell would I require such a thing for...I can´t have more than 3 Gb of music in my home computer at the moment, and I allready don´t listen to a lot of it....why would I need to lump 20Gb around???:san_rolleyes:
1Gb, good sound, good battery life...that´s my needs....no need to pay double for an overpriced "fashion" gadget.
And the top quality of the Muvo....just plug it in to an USB port and you´re in business and accessing your files directly....after a few horror stories told by friends about their Ipod´s iTunes software I made the decision never to go anywere near one of the bloody things....
Alexanderofmacedon
12-15-2005, 18:25
no need to pay double for an overpriced "fashion" gadget.
I know for a fact some people buy it just because "everyone else has it"
I know for a fact some people buy it just because "everyone else has it"
over here it was from the moment that football players started showing up using ipods in public......
from then one....everyone had to have one :san_rolleyes:
Alexanderofmacedon
12-15-2005, 18:57
Yeah, I know...
P.S- I absolutely love your sig...:san_laugh:
I have an Archois Gmini XS202 (20GB) which I think is great. I did have a Creative Muvo2 (4GB) which was fine until it refused to talk to my new motherboard, so I sold it. I didn't want an over-priced ipod and have had all sorts of probelms with various bits of Creative kit so I tried something different. So far so good!
Geoffrey S
12-15-2005, 20:26
I've had my iPod for more than two-and-a-half years (10 gb), and it's been more than worth its cost.
I just got a Creative Zen Micro (5 Gigs) last week. It's great, has an FM tuner in it. I'm still working out the battery life though. But I've yet to learn all it's functions (like the playlist feature) and thatmost of my music that isn't an MP3 yet.
Taffy_is_a_Taff
12-16-2005, 03:09
you can get refurbished IPods straight from Apple, or you can get one at a major discount if you happen to know an employee.....
....both of these options being far more suited to the financially challenged than the standard option.
Divinus Arma
12-16-2005, 07:14
I have iPod.
It sat on my desk for two weeks after it was given to me because I didn't want to take the effort to download and do mp3 things.
When I finally loaded it up.... DEAR GOD! This little white sucker ROCKS! Highly addictive, very user friendly, and comes with the total package of iTunes.
I love it.
:san_smiley:
The best one imo is the 20gb Sony NW-HD1.
http://news.sel.sony.com/digitalimages/images/2004/40/44/164044.jpg
It is better than the equivalent iPod in a number of ways...
1. It can hold 3,000 songs more than the 20gb iPod
2. It costs £150 less than the 20gb iPod
3. It is smaller than the 20gb iPod as it is just the size of a credit card.
4. It looks better in my opinion
5. It has a longer battery life than the iPod
There is a newer version out now (HD2, which is worse than the original because it is bigger and more expensive). However the HD1 is much better than that and is also much better than the equivilent 20gb iPod at half the price.
:san_wink:
Just A Girl
12-16-2005, 13:06
...
I believe that there is a new model out to replace the 20gb Sony NW-HD1. I was thinking about getting it but then realised that it uses a proprietary media format. This coupled with the terrible reputation of Sony's software and the fact that I wanted a drag-and-drop device made me look elsewhere.
Sjakihata
12-17-2005, 12:41
The best one imo is the 20gb Sony NW-HD1.
http://news.sel.sony.com/digitalimages/images/2004/40/44/164044.jpg
It is better than the equivalent iPod in a number of ways...
1. It can hold 3,000 songs more than the 20gb iPod
2. It costs £150 less than the 20gb iPod
3. It is smaller than the 20gb iPod as it is just the size of a credit card.
4. It looks better in my opinion
5. It has a longer battery life than the iPod
There is a newer version out now (HD2, which is worse than the original because it is bigger and more expensive). However the HD1 is much better than that and is also much better than the equivilent 20gb iPod at half the price.
:san_wink:
How can a 20gb sony harddrive hold 3000 more songs than a 20 gb harddrive
My MP3 player can hold 256 MB, it's slightly larger than a silver dollar, weighs less and has survived both an MRI machine and a washing machine.
Oh did I mention it costs less than $90?
How can a 20gb sony harddrive hold 3000 more songs than a 20 gb harddrive
Because Sony has it's own Atrac3plus format which compresses songs to a smaller size allowing more songs to be stored. :san_wink:
Because Sony has it's own Atrac3plus format which compresses songs to a smaller size allowing more songs to be stored.
Two thoughts: (1) I'm 99.999% certain that the Atrac3plus format will lose data, and therefore sound quality. (2) I really wouldn't want to get married to a Sony-only format for storing my digital music. Gimme MP3, for all of its problems. At least I can switch players whenever the whim strikes me. I would also consider Ogg Vorbis, since that's open-standard. But why hitch yourself to a single company?
Big King Sanctaphrax
12-19-2005, 00:16
Well MP3 loses data too-they're both lossy file types. I'm not sure about which has the better quality at a given bit rate, however.
I use Ogg personally-it's a great format. One of the resons I bought the iriver is that it supports it.
I'm 99.999% certain that the Atrac3plus format will lose data, and therefore sound quality.
If it does lose sound quality then its totally unoticable in my ears because every song sounds perfect, and it has really good quality sound imo.
I really wouldn't want to get married to a Sony-only format for storing my digital music. Gimme MP3, for all of its problems. At least I can switch players whenever the whim strikes me. I would also consider Ogg Vorbis, since that's open-standard. But why hitch yourself to a single company?
Well I don't convert all my songs to Atrac3plus. It only converts them to it to store more songs on the player, I can store various formats onto it. I can also store documents onto it but thats besides the point. But I'm not hitching myself to a single company in any way. I just choose to use that format personally as I would like to maximize the space, but as I said before I can store other formats on their too.
:san_wink:
A recent li'l something from Jupiter Research: (http://weblogs.jupiterresearch.com/analysts/gartenberg/archives/012620.html)
Best Portable Media Player – 2005
I'd like to say this was a tough choice and there were lots of contenders but for me it wasn't even close (although I do like the Creative Zen Vision for mobile video aficionados, where video is the primary focus and not music). The new video capable iPod and the Nano are my two picks and of the two, I'm giving the nod to the Nano.
What's Good – No other players have captured the hearts and minds of consumers like the iPod. You know the market share numbers and it seems at the moment Apple is still king of the hill. The new iPods refine the older models elegance and finally come in something other than white. Both models are very thin (the 30gb especially so) and the added video capability and the new video content on the iTunes music store, both in terms of commercial and podcast formats give users something to fill them up with. The nano continues to amaze everyone who sees it and almost everyone who sees it and holds it wants one. Few products manage to evoke the notion of caressability like the nano does. It's also a spectacular music player and battery life is excellent too. Since it's 4gb, it fits well within the size of the average consumer music collection. In short, we said this one was going to be a hit and we were right.
What's Missing – Both units tend to scratch easily and require more attention than any mobile device deserves to have. Critics can also lament lack of support for more video and audio formats and the proprietary nature of music purchased online from Apple. On the other hand more than 75% of consumers don't seem to care and Apple remains the company to beat in this space. Could it be done better? Possibly, but at the moment, no one is even close.
Sjakihata
12-20-2005, 13:52
I believe that the new apple lossless is the best format for a mp3 player.
L'Impresario
12-20-2005, 14:18
Since September, I'm trying to avoid anything that has the Sony brand on it, for a really simple reason. My 280 euro NW-HD5 (20GB), bought in late July, stopped for no reason at all functioning in mid-September. I brought it to their official service, they declared 2 weeks later that I need to pay 240 euros to get it fixed, and when I reminded them that I hold a guarantee, they phoned back 10 days later and told me that it's invalid due to the board getting wet:san_shocked:
They even suggested I had spilt Coke on it, or left it on a warm table,close to a glass of water, or that I placed it in a moisterous place...yeah right.
2 weeks ago I heard that a friend's relative had been presented the same explanation. If I wasn't that busy lately, I'd have taken an aggressive course of action, if only because of their utter lack of respect towards their customers.
I believe that the new apple lossless is the best format for a mp3 player.
I'm leery of using anything that only works with one brand. Here's a test -- record a track you know very well using MP3 at 192 kps with VBR on. Then record the same track with a "lossless" codec. Then do a blind taste test. If you can tell the difference, you're probably cheating.
Since September, I'm trying to avoid anything that has the Sony brand on it, for a really simple reason.
I have another very simple reason to avoid Sony. The DRM software fiasco on their "CDs". Any time a company, in an effort to protect it's profits, screws over it's legitimate customers, see you later, do not pass go, do not collect $200. I'm not familiar with Sony's software for using the NW-HDs, but I wouldn't trust it on my PC. I'm not a music pirate, but I like my standards open, MP3 or Ogg all the way. If the player doesn't support one of those, I don't want it.
I have another very simple reason to avoid Sony. The DRM software fiasco on their "CDs". Any time a company, in an effort to protect it's profits, screws over it's legitimate customers, see you later, do not pass go, do not collect $200. I'm not familiar with Sony's software for using the NW-HDs, but I wouldn't trust it on my PC. I'm not a music pirate, but I like my standards open, MP3 or Ogg all the way. If the player doesn't support one of those, I don't want it.
Yes, Sony has forever lost me over that.
Aren't companies who treat their customers like scum nice?
Okay, it's all over, you can stop debating, I've found the best MP3 player. Only problem with it (if you can call it that) is that it needs a Kalashnikov assault rifle to go with it. That's right, for the Boris in your life, here's the AK47 MP3 player. (http://www.audiobooksforfree.com/kalashnikov/Ak-mp3.asp)
Gah! Don't let Kaiser see that.
:computer:
"Dear Santa, if you don't bring me an AK-47 MP3 player, I swear I'm gonna stuff an elf right up your... "
Kanamori
12-21-2005, 15:49
I was just about to go out and get a nano but screw that, I want an mp3 player shaped like an AK clip. Hot!
Zalmoxis
12-23-2005, 02:17
Sadly, I still have not chosen any one of these. However, I've got news, just came back from the mountains, saw snow the first time in three years, really nice :san_grin:.
Goofball
12-23-2005, 19:38
The Ipod is very good. It's very easy to use, and it's simple. Unfortunetly it has a high cost, breaks easily (my friend has broken 3 of his video ipods and has since bought no more), and it has low battery life.
I bought my iPod about 4 months ago. I take it with me to the gym and listen to it during my 45 minute workout every day. Not only have I sweated all over it and dropped it more than a few times without breaking it, but I only have to plug it in to charge once a week.
What has your friend been doing with his iPods, hitting them with hammers?
Hurin_Rules
12-23-2005, 19:47
Ipod software--Itunes in particular--sucks.
I have an Ipod, and have been relatively happy with it. But I use winamp rather than itunes.
Example: Itunes will only let you copy songs from a computer to an Ipod-- you can't copy songs the other way. So if you upgrade your computer and want to back up your Ipod library on it, you're out of luck. Yes, it's true, although how they can get away with it, I'll never know.
I had to use a plug in for winamp to be able to read the files on my Ipod via my computer and copy them to my hard drive.
Ipods are good, but overpriced and come with crappy software, IMHO.
Hurin, you can easily grab plugins that will allow you to read from iPods. I'm surprised that you would know enough to find a plugin for WinAmp, but didn't find one of the many mods for iTunes. iPod Agent (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/win/39288) has gotten some good reviews, for one.
The thing I don't like about iTunes is the services it tries to run in the background. But that's nothing that two minutes in msconfig can't fix.
Dutch_guy
12-23-2005, 21:00
Have an Ipod, will be having it for one year later this month.
The only down side with the ipod are imo the earphones, they tend to break easily - and no, I haven;t been trowing or banging them on the ground, just using them frequently ( read : everyday )
Other than that I love my 20 gig Ipod, and I don't hate Itunes either, seems to work ok - however I haven't had to ever back up my library yet, so who knows.
:balloon2:
Kanamori
12-23-2005, 21:30
Does anyone know if you can remove songs from a nano once they're on there, because I don't think you can w/ the regular ones, and 4GB isn't enough to keep all of them on there.
Dutch_guy
12-23-2005, 21:42
deleting the songs from your itunes library should delete them from your ipod, the songs will be deleted once you update your ipod ( ie. connect your ipod to your computer ).
:balloon2:
Kanamori
12-23-2005, 21:56
I assume that I can choose which songs go on it then, since my library is around 10gb...
IrishMike
12-25-2005, 03:47
Just got an Ipod 30 gig video tonight and so far i'm happy. Came set on the french language, apparently they think kentucky speaks french but oh well got that settled, but other than that no problems at all. Also works great and no sound problems.
Dutch_guy
12-25-2005, 12:22
I assume that I can choose which songs go on it then, since my library is around 10gb...
yes you can, notice the little blue square next to the name of the song - in Itunes.
You should see that it is selected, deselect it by clicking on it - now the square is turned white.
Meaning that song will not be put on your ipod.
:balloon2:
I think the iPod Minis look better than the Nanos. Ah well.
My sister has got a 6gb green Mini for Christmas. I think I need a new one. My old 3g 15gb is getting a bit scratched and long in the tooth now...
Plus only 500mb left free!
Craterus
12-25-2005, 18:00
Just got an Ipod 30 gig video tonight and so far i'm happy. Came set on the french language, apparently they think kentucky speaks french but oh well got that settled, but other than that no problems at all. Also works great and no sound problems.
Me too, apart from the French bit.. :san_cool:
Just uploading my library now...
Strike For The South
12-26-2005, 06:01
Me too, apart from the French bit.. :san_cool:
Just uploading my library now...
Me 3 IPOD brothers unite:san_laugh: :san_laugh: :san_laugh:
I cant get videos though Help please
Zalmoxis
12-26-2005, 10:26
Turns out I got a 1 GB Sony Walkman for Christmas (unexpected) which I like very much, mainly because it is very, very easy to use (I hate compact devices).
Craterus
12-27-2005, 01:57
Me 3 IPOD brothers unite:san_laugh: :san_laugh: :san_laugh:
I cant get videos though Help please
Listening to it now... (I'm using a different computer, and it's a fair point about it being a pain to transfer iTunes libraries between computers.)
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