Best portable mp3 player

[Gallstaff]

For an early birthday present my parental units said I could get a portable mp3 player as long as it was within a reasonable price range. People say get the 10 gig ipod and I watned to, but lord 450 dollars? I was thinking that there are prorably other 10 gig portable (when i say portable i mean ones that can fit in your pocket easily) mp3 players that can operate just as well. I have no idea what to get though. If you guys could help me that would be great. Here are the things I want:

.10 gigs of storage

.Firewire (but if all other requirements are met except this, USB wonter bother me)

.Backlight and easy navigation

.Good quality playback (duur)

.Meets the size requirements as mentioned above

So you guys know any that I might be able to look into?

 

[racketboy]

get a used 10GB iPod somewhere.

But just to let you know, there is supposed to be new iPod models coming out before the end of the month (w/ docking station) that may have lower prices or a least push down prices of older models

But I would recommend not to settle for anything less than an iPod.

The interface is perfect.

I'm getting one as soon as the new ones come out.

 

[Zziggy00]

why not go to bestbuy and just pick up a cheap CD/MP3 player....you get to listen to all your old CDs and MP3 cd's holding 700MB each...

This will run you around $40.

 

[Gallstaff]

Cause It's smaller, more sleek, still bigger, easier to transfer data too.

 

[Ammut]

Originally posted by Gallstaff@Apr 14, 2003 @ 12:42 AM

Cause It's smaller, more sleek, still bigger, easier to transfer data too.

Just say 'cause it looks cool and thats all that matters to me'....lol

I donno, I agree with Ziggy, I recently got a cd/mp3 player and its great as it holds TONS more and has a nice interface. A guy at school paid more for his little mini disc player and is convinced that its better even though I've openly shut him down in every department...all that these new gizmos have in my opinion is a spiffy look. Sure, 10gigs would be nice but for the price it ain't worth it IMO. And I doubt you'll find any 10 gig player for under 400. Then again, I got my music player to play music and not for looks, if you want to impress everyone it'd be alright.

---Ammut

 

[Jeffrey]

Personally, I think the great benefits of portable MP3 players is that they ar small and have no moveable parts. Excellent for jogging or the subway.

For this reason I don't go for the big ones with harddrives. They're too expensive and fragile to gain the benefit. I have had a small iRock for almost 2 years and love it. it fits snuggly in my palm, I have dropped it a million times with no problems, and it stores about 40 songs. Not bad for a train ride, exercise session. And at about 100 bucks, it is not something I really have to worry about when I drop.

I think you should go for small and expendable. 128MB is more than enough to give you variety in songs if you just reload the thing on weekends. Plus it will fit nicely in your pocket and withstand the bouncing around unlike an iPod.

 

[Gallstaff]

Yeah 40 song songs is good but what I'm aiming to do is dump most of my cd's onto one easily accessable unit. And since I'm not an avid buyer of cd's I think a five gig would be good. So do you guys know any five gig players?

 

[racketboy]

Originally posted by Zziggy00@Apr 14, 2003 @ 11:28 PM

why not go to bestbuy and just pick up a cheap CD/MP3 player....you get to listen to all your old CDs and MP3 cd's holding 700MB each...

This will run you around $40.

I've tried one of the cheap ones ($50)

It was fine once you got it going.

But it would take anywhere from 20 secs to 2 mins to start playing the disc depending on how full the disc was.

The fuller the better

What I like about the iPod (and possible other players) is the use of playlists for different mood etc.

 

[racketboy]

Originally posted by Gallstaff@Apr 15, 2003 @ 07:35 PM

Yeah 40 song songs is good but what I'm aiming to do is dump most of my cd's onto one easily accessable unit. And since I'm not an avid buyer of cd's I think a five gig would be good. So do you guys know any five gig players?

not a lot of people still make 5GB

10GB aren't THAT much more

 

[Tindo@heart]

I've got a $50 Memorex CD/MP3 player and love it! It doesn't have the problem that Racketboy mentioned, it recognizes the disk in maybe 2 seconds. I've never heard it skip, it sounds great, I hardly ever change the disk, and it recognizes multisession disks. This is great because I can continue to add songs to the disk until it is filled up.

The only thing I dislike about the unit is that it doesn't have a backlit display.

I prefer the idea of MP3's on CDs. It's in a format that I can easily play on my computer, CD/MP3 player, or most DVD players. If I'm at a friend's house we can pump my music through their DVD player. This is something you can't do with USB devices.

 

[racketboy]

Originally posted by Tindo@heart@Apr 15, 2003 @ 09:19 PM

I prefer the idea of MP3's on CDs. It's in a format that I can easily play on my computer, CD/MP3 player, or most DVD players. If I'm at a friend's house we can pump my music through their DVD player. This is something you can't do with USB devices.

Well when I get my iPod I can get a headphone-to-RCA adapter and plug it right into my stereo receiver.

 

[Jeffrey]

One small note about playing MP3s from CD:

I have 2 CD players at home which play both standard and MP3 formats. I have noticed that when playing MP3s there is no Random mode in both versions! Also, I cannot seek and scan within one file -- only skip forward and back!! On top of that, no program mode. Of course, these problems don't exist when playing them on the computer, but still, if two different players (one portable, one a home unit) have the same problem...

You'd better check this out before you make a purchase.

 

[Quadriflax]

Originally posted by Tindo@heart@Apr 15, 2003 @ 10:19 PM

I've got a $50 Memorex CD/MP3 player and love it!

Is it this one? I ordered this a few years back and it was an incredible piece of shit. It had problems reading pretty much all my CDs for one reason or another, the sound quality was crap, the search feature was useless, the readout wasn't backlit and was way too small to be of any use, the button layout was shit while driving, the thing didn't remember where you left off after unhooking it so it always started over, and once it turned off when I hit a pot hole. This is all while it wasn't skipping, which it did CONSTANTLY for no reason. I don't know if I got a bad one or what. I can only hope MP3/CD players are better at this stage. Still, I'd look into something with no moving parts.

<_<

 

[ZoNeD]

CD/MP3 Players are pure shit sometimes... the mp3 options usually drain power and it ends up being a glorified CD player... iPOD is quite nice but Mini Disc Players are by far the top of the line for me. Actually 128mb mp3 player is also quite good but it's a hard call and really depends on your needs.

I can understand you need the 10 gig's to dump stuff, personally I wish someone could produce something to fit all the needs you mentioned, but not taking up too much space in your pocket. Hopefully something will come along in the next year or so because my panasonic mp3/cd players sucks mad, and skips on mp3's CONSTANTLY (my opinion is based on normal treatment and the fact someone stole it, when it was found again it never quite worked the same even though it was not damaged.... BASTARDS).

 

[Gallstaff]

Yeah I wish that prices would go down on that nomad jukebox zen. Oh also dude minidsic players... meh. Those are cool but the thing with those are that the writers cost a lot too and I dunno there's something cool about you being able to access a huge amount of songs easily and catorgorically.

 

[Curtis]

All but the cheapest minidisc players let you "write" minidiscs. The media is a lot cheaper than ram too...

Haven't you asked this question in the past, Galstaff?

 

[mal]

Originally posted by racketboy@Apr 15, 2003 @ 07:31 AM

get a used 10GB iPod somewhere.

:agree

It sounds like you want all the features of an iPod, but just can't afford a new one.

 

[Tindo@heart]

Racketboy, the RCA-adapters work great. Tape adapters work OK too. But what if your i-pod less friends wants a copy or two of an album. I just happen to think MP3 on CDs is a more versatile format. Also aren't Ipods sold in Mac or PC versions, neither of which is compatible with both.

Jeff-20, My model, MPD8855, fast-fwds and rewinds through songs in both CD and MP3, it even speeds it up "chipmunk-like" so it's easy to find your spot ... it's one of the fun things about it.

It also has a shuffle, a program mode to make playlist, and Resume. The resume doesn't pick back up to the second, it starts at the beginning of the last song played. I really shopped around before I choose this one. It has the most features for the best price.

Quadri, no I have this one:

MPD8855

The model numbers are very similar though, yours was "MPD8505CP"

Sadly, my model has been discontinued. I guess they caught on the steal their customers were getting with all the features for only 50 bucks.

One more gripe about my model is it's inability to charge batteries. I've owned several portable Awia brand CD players and they all had backlit displays and capable of recharging batteries. Luckily my ol' CD players power adapters worked for this model, including the cigarette lighter adapter. ... Which reminds me of a gripe about ALL modern portable CD players. Manufacters seem to forget we need power and don't include AC adapters anymore. I remember when they all came with AC adapters, now it's hard to find 1 that does.

CD/MP3 seem to be fading out. How unfortunate. I've noticed a decline in advertising of these devices. Some had 8 minute skip protection. Mine only has 2minutes, which means it loads the 120seconds of the song in 15 seconds and then stops the disk, ... I've timed it.

So the majority of the time there is no moving parts.

I was also looking at the TDK brand of MP3/CD player. Those seem great and have a nice interface. http://www.tdk.com/cdmp3/

These are all a matter of opinion from people of different lifesyles. I happen to listen to my mp3's mostly in my car, where I have a tape adapter. This serves well if a friend brings an Audio-CD to listen to. I prefer versatility and portability. Though I never listen to tapes, I find it hard to part with my Pioneer car stereo. In my car I'm able to listen to AM/FM/Tapes/CD/and MP3. I would hate to have two units for CDs and MP3s.

edit:URL

 

[racketboy]

Originally posted by jeff-20@Apr 16, 2003 @ 02:15 AM

One small note about playing MP3s from CD:

I have 2 CD players at home which play both standard and MP3 formats. I have noticed that when playing MP3s there is no Random mode in both versions! Also, I cannot seek and scan within one file -- only skip forward and back!! On top of that, no program mode. Of course, these problems don't exist when playing them on the computer, but still, if two different players (one portable, one a home unit) have the same problem...

You'd better check this out before you make a purchase.

yeah I forgot about that....

if someone was to get a MP3/CD player, I would recommend the iRiver products.

The cost more, but you get what you pay for.

 

[Gallstaff]

Originally posted by Curtis@Apr 16, 2003 @ 04:36 AM

All but the cheapest minidisc players let you "write" minidiscs. The media is a lot cheaper than ram too...

Haven't you asked this question in the past, Galstaff?

No I asked about digital video cameras before.