New MP3 player

[London Geezer]

all I have is an obsolete 128mb nuvo that i got for free from my cable company.

but I think if I was gonna upgrade, I really like the way those new Sony flash players look. I think 1gig would be enough for me, but maybe ill hold out a little longer and see if they make a 1.5 or 2 giger. They cost about $20-30 more than a shuffle of the same capacity, but they have a screen, a 50 hour battery charge, and you can quickcharge it for like 3 minutes to get 3 hours of playback. and yes it will play mp3s.

That's the thing, a 1 or 2GB one would be ok if i started shuffling my music pretty much everynight to make sure i'd have something interesting to listen the day after... With big ass HD ones you can just leave everything there and listen to whatever u want whenever you want, and when you're REALLY tired of something, you can take it off and forget about it...

Now i'm kinda undecided between the new iPod (the colour screen one) or the HD5. I'll just go for whatever's cheaper.

 

[rabidrabbit]

If you already have most of your music in some compressed iTunes format, then maybe it would be better to go for iPod as re-converting the iTunes format to MP3 or ATRAC must lessen the quality of the music files.

 

[Althornin]

The newest batch of sonys DO play native MP3s, though I don't mind atrac myself at all. I've found nothing wrong with the sound, not for a portable player anyway. Most mp3s are far from optimum in their encoding quality anyway, and compared to the best schemes of today, not the most efficient storage-wise either. I'd rather re-rip my CD collection to a new superior format than continue to use old, moldy MP3s...

That would be true IF Atrac was superior...and mp3 was "old, moldy"..
but its not, and mp3's arent.

 

[Mariner]

If you're going to re-rip all your music, you might as well get a player which supports WMV and Ogg. I've never used one myself, but the iRiver players seem to be recommended as the best by most.

 

[Tim Murray]

uhm, I get 8 hours on my 40GB iPod's battery, even when dealing with lossless files (which makes up a lot of my music). the battery thing was limited to 1G and 2G--3G and 4G have had no battery problems to speak of, really, besides the occasional "ohnoes, battery died after a week" that everyone runs into.

plus it still has the best interface ever. you'd think someone would go, "Hm. the iPod is damned easy to use. Maybe we should work on that instead of adding eight thousand features no one will ever use..."

 

[Guden Oden]

That would be true IF Atrac was superior...and mp3 was "old, moldy"..
but its not, and mp3's arent.

I didn't SAY atrac was superior you know, just good enough for me. And MP3 sure is amongst the oldest of lossy audio formats in use today, that officially makes it moldy too. I still have MP3s from my first PC that I bought in '97 for chrissakes and the format wasn't that new even then.

 

[Florin]

I didn't SAY atrac was superior you know, just good enough for me. And MP3 sure is amongst the oldest of lossy audio formats in use today, that officially makes it moldy too. I still have MP3s from my first PC that I bought in '97 for chrissakes and the format wasn't that new even then.

The first encoding software for MP3 became available in 1994. If MP3 is considered moldy, would that make Atrac qualify as fossilised? After all, that has been around since 91.

Then again, they've both had updates/improvements over time.

 

[carpediem]

Just wanted to mention that my iAudio X5 is capable of acting as USB host to my camera, so I just plug them together and I can get all files available on the camera directly. 20 gigabyte of extra storage when i'm on vacation with my camera

 

[CMAN]

I would personally go with an iPod. I've used/played with most all of them and I like the iPod the best. Personally I think it has the best overall combo of looks/ease to use/robustmess. Also, there is an iPod in almost every range of size and price.

 

[PC-Engine]

Just wanted to mention that my iAudio X5 is capable of acting as USB host to my camera, so I just plug them together and I can get all files available on the camera directly. 20 gigabyte of extra storage when i'm on vacation with my camera

It's a shame some people are not aware how great the X5 is. It plays WMA, WAV, OGG, MP3, FLAC, AVI, JPEG, MPEG4, BMPs, GIF, text files, has built-in FM tuner, clock/timer, full color LCD, has built-in voice recorder/FM recorder/line in recorder, has direct encoding, MP enhance, BBE, Mach3Bass by BBE, Mac/Linux compatible, can display lyrics with music, 5 band EQ, wallpaper function, USB 2.0 OTG. The best thing about it though is the sound quality which is amazing!! X5 with a pair of Shure E3s or E4s is simply pefection.

http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/iaudio/x5/

Personally I listen to 320kbps CBR true stereo MP3s since it's very battery friendly. OGG is better but it consumes more power.

 

[aaronspink]

See my point is that it seems the iPod is considered one of the best when it comes to sound quality. Pretty much every review i see has sentences like this one



But then you talk to people and they say the iPod is not actually all that when it comes to sound quality.

Who to believe?

In the end i think i won't go for the iPod because of the battery issues (not long life and not take-out-able).

So i guess it now comes down to either the HD5 or the Zen. The HD5 has a volume lock which is unlockable so i wouldn't worry about it not being loud enough.

I own several MP3 players and have tried a lot of others including the sony and iriver models.

For player UI, the Ipod still has everything else beat hands down. Also Itunes is by far the best interface program.

Audio quality is roughly on par with all the main models now. Some may be more to ones liking than others, but that is solely an attribute of the tuning.

Technically the best models out there are the iAudio line of HD players with the M3L having the longest battery life of any HD player currently. The main drawback of the iAudio line is a somewhat crappy player UI and the way it doesn't build an ID3 tagged DB instead relying on the directory system. The audio quality and tunability is by far the best out there and can be easily adapted to any pair of headphones out there.

Have demo'd the sony for a week and the main problem is the software supplied is an absolute piece of junk. Also they are a bit aggressive on their claim of 40 hours. And the fast that the software loads everything on as a different format. hardware is actually pretty decent.

So it is really up to you, they will all work but the Ipod has currently still the best user experience though lower battery life. For me, I keep my Ipod at work most of the time and use an M3L for travel (which is pretty much required with some travel legs stretching to 30+ hours and being in areas were electricity can at times be poor).

Also get a pair of Shure E2s, E3s or Etymotics ER6 or ER4 canal phones. You can generally get the E2s or ER6 for ~60 and they allow you to find the right canal inserts for you (soft rubber for normal times and foam inserts for travel on planes and trains).

Aaron Spink
speaking for myself inc.

 

[aaronspink]

Changing the iPod battery is ~$100!

If you can unlock the volume on HD5, that's nice. I had my Zen for 5-6 months and LOVE it. Those 5 gigs can accomodate lots of music, I have 28 full albums encoded with 320 kbit, and it's still below 3 gig. And frankly, you'll never need more than ~50 albums worth of music, unless you're a freak

The point of the HD players is to take all your music with you so you can listen to what you want.

 

[aaronspink]

Both HD5 and Zen are much better than iPod.

Having used all 3, I would say not. If you just want to listen to music the iPod is the better product. The Zen is ok, the HD5 has better battery life and shite software.

 

[_xxx_]

Having used all 3, I would say not. If you just want to listen to music the iPod is the better product. The Zen is ok, the HD5 has better battery life and shite software.

As anything, it's a matter of taste.

Talking about sound quality/volume, Zen kills everything else out there. To my ears, of course. iPod has the best UI and looks best. iRiver has nowhere near sufficient volume for me, since I listen to my music LOUD and iRiver just doesn't cut it there.

 

[carpediem]

It's a shame some people are not aware how great the X5 is. It plays WMA, WAV, OGG, MP3, FLAC, AVI, JPEG, MPEG4, BMPs, GIF, text files, has built-in FM tuner, clock/timer, full color LCD, has built-in voice recorder/FM recorder/line in recorder, has direct encoding, MP enhance, BBE, Mach3Bass by BBE, Mac/Linux compatible, can display lyrics with music, 5 band EQ, wallpaper function, USB 2.0 OTG. The best thing about it though is the sound quality which is amazing!! X5 with a pair of Shure E3s or E4s is simply pefection.

http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/iaudio/x5/

Personally I listen to 320kbps CBR true stereo MP3s since it's very battery friendly. OGG is better but it consumes more power.

Agreed... It feels like you and me are the only sane people on this board when it comes to the choice of MP3 players

I LOVE this player and I also read that there's a guy writing some kind of add/replacement? on to the iAudio OS too, so perhaps we'll get a good modding community around this player as well!

http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/IaudioPort

OT: Which Shure phones do you use? I was planning to get a pair as well, but not sure if i want to cough up the extra money for the E4s. The E3s are good enough you think?

 

[Ty]

As soon as the X5 60 gig supports iD3 tagging I'll pick one up. Both it and the firmware support should be out soon. I only wish the 60 would have a decent screen cuz the current one on the 20 sucks.

Then it will be my 5th mp3 player in about a 1.5 years. Doh.

Showdown between 2 popular players that I thought was fairly decent - shallow but easy to digest.
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-10442_7-6280547-1.html?tag=lnav

 

[PC-Engine]

I was planning to get a pair as well, but not sure if i want to cough up the extra money for the E4s. The E3s are good enough you think?

I'm using the E4Cs. They're slighty better than the E3C both on the low end and high end. I purchased mine for $200, but you could probably find them for around $180 at some places. I really can't say if it's worth the extra cost over the E3Cs for you since the E3Cs are already very good sounding canalphones and can be found for around $110. Extremetech did a comparison of some canalphones including the E3 and E4.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1830668,00.asp

Anyway check this out. It's hilarious.

http://gprime.net/video.php/ipodflea

 

[London Geezer]

Agreed... It feels like you and me are the only sane people on this board when it comes to the choice of MP3 players

I LOVE this player and I also read that there's a guy writing some kind of add/replacement? on to the iAudio OS too, so perhaps we'll get a good modding community around this player as well!

http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/IaudioPort

OT: Which Shure phones do you use? I was planning to get a pair as well, but not sure if i want to cough up the extra money for the E4s. The E3s are good enough you think?

Well that's sweet and all, the thing can do anything, but i really just want a cute little MP3 player you see... I mean i just don't need all that stuff therefore i'm not prepared to pay extra for those features that i will never use. Is it the best? Probably, but it's just too much for me.

So, it's still down to either the new iPod with colour screen or the HD5. Leaning on the HD5 for battery reasons and size and general not-everyone-has-one factor.

 

[RussSchultz]

Ogg is a lousy codec for portable media devices.

Truly a memory hog when compared to MP3 or AAC.

The designers certainly had no concept of what an "embedded" device actually is.

 

[zurich]

iPod!

Why deviate from the masses...? (Though I may be biased, *cough!*)