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MP3 players

ShowMe

Graduate Poster
ShowMe
Joined
Jul 25, 2001
Messages
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I want to buy someone in my family an MP3 player/recorder for Christmas., something like an iPod.

Heck, if it's the best thing out there I'll buy an iPod.

I'm very good at the computer stuff but never got into the MP3 thing. What's the best thing going out there? What should I look for?

The standards are too high for this person. They want something where they can download their MP3's, put them on their box, and listen to them. An attachment for playing them in the card (through a cassette adapter or CD adapter) would be very nice.

Thoughts? Figure $200 is the upper limit for me to spend.

Anything I should truly watch out for? I see that Wal Mart has a "ilo 256 MB Digital Audio MP3 Player" for $75. What kind of hidden things are going to bite me if I get something like this?
 
I think the best reviews are in PC World - rates the iPod the best of the large capacity players, the Rio Carbon the best of the small. They're all over $200 though.

btw, to play in the car, the best deal is a kit that turns your device into a short range radio transmitter - you tune into it with your car's FM radio. This kind of thing.

iPods are the coolest, btw. :)
 
Anything I should truly watch out for? I see that Wal Mart has a "ilo 256 MB Digital Audio MP3 Player" for $75. What kind of hidden things are going to bite me if I get something like this?
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Not very much i guess. It won't last for 10 years you know but you dont expect that right? The one weak part is allmost allways the mechanical parts. The headphone jack and the (off course very few) buttons. An naturally the earphones will be at level with those you get when you take a guided tour around a city in a bus BUT buy some decent earphones and you turn most cheap players into decent music machines. AND the memory costs also. It is a good idea to buy a player that uses exchangable RAM cards, SD or similar. Then you can allways use the card for something else if the player breaks down.
 
Last I heard, the iPod didn't have a replacable battery. A work-around was found for this in the older iPods, and Apple produced a new one with no work-around. Not that the iPod is "bad", mind you, but if you want it to last longer than its first set of rechargeable batteries, then MAKE SURE they can be replaced.

The Archos Jukebox is utter garbage. Shoddy manufacture, buggy operation, bad interface.

My recommendation would be a CD based MP3 player, if you have a CDR in the household. Dirt cheap, holds tons of music, media is "nothing special", etc. So cheap, you could buy one each for everyone in the house AND a CD burner for less than the cost of one iPod - and it plays normal CDs.

And for your car, a CD based MP3 player is not hard to find, and dirt cheap as well. 10 hours on one 28 cent disk.
 
evildave said:
Last I heard, the iPod didn't have a replacable battery. A work-around was found for this in the older iPods, and Apple produced a new one with no work-around. Not that the iPod is "bad", mind you, but if you want it to last longer than its first set of rechargeable batteries, then MAKE SURE they can be replaced.

The Archos Jukebox is utter garbage. Shoddy manufacture, buggy operation, bad interface.

My recommendation would be a CD based MP3 player, if you have a CDR in the household. Dirt cheap, holds tons of music, media is "nothing special", etc. So cheap, you could buy one each for everyone in the house AND a CD burner for less than the cost of one iPod - and it plays normal CDs.

And for your car, a CD based MP3 player is not hard to find, and dirt cheap as well. 10 hours on one 28 cent disk.
Click to expand...

I second this..

Something like:

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.htm...5?_encoding=UTF8&frombrowse=1&asin=B0000DFHMM


I've seen em' on sale for as low as $20..

P.S.


If you're paying $.28 for CD-R, you're getting ripped off!:D
 
I buy 'em in batches of (at least) 100, and $28 is what I paid for the last batch, so that's what CDR media costs me until my cake box runs out, probably in another year or two.

My CDR use went WAY down when I switched to DVD and then hard disk for my routine backups.

A quick froogle search for iPod shows some older and open-box iPods start at $200, and a Pricewatch search for a brand new CD burner starts at $28 (though you might pay up to $40 to get one with bundled software). You can buy 100 CDRs for $14.

So, buy everyone an MP3 player, a new CD burner, a big stack of CDRs, a couple spare MP3 players and a Costco box of AA batteries, and you'll have money left over for the wrapping paper, and you still haven't paid for one iPod (or equivalent) player.

Of course, you could also shop for a 'quality' MP3 player with integrated recharger and such, but realistically, the more special and expensive it is, the fewer places you'll ever want to take it with you, and the less use you'll get from it, and the worse you'll feel when it ultimately quits or gets smashed. If you only paid $20~$30 for it, you won't care.

The solid state MP3 players are easy to find, but all suffer from either super-skimpy memory, or mega-bloated price.
 
seriously, the iPod will change your life. Best thing I ever bought for the money. To have all your music with you is a great thing.

but for 200 bucks, you can't get one...if your budget increases consider the 20gb version, still holds thousands of songs.

also check out the mini-iPods ( I think they're 250 bucks). Theyre also very stylish which is part of the fun of owning one. Lots of envious looks :)

there was a lot of fear that the battery only lasted one year and then it would die and you were screwed. well, mine is a year and half old (i have a 30 gb version, 2nd generation), still works flawlessly and battery lasts as long as when new (same for some friends of mine). And if hte battery does die Apple will replace it after the warranty expires for 99 bucks ( a big chunk of change, I know, but beats throwing it away)
 
ShowMe said:
I see that Wal Mart has a "ilo 256 MB Digital Audio MP3 Player" for $75. What kind of hidden things are going to bite me if I get something like this?
Click to expand...

Nothing especially. It's just that 256MB is nit quite enough to hold all your songs, so you have to change 'em every so often. That's why the iPod is so good. That and the "cool" factor. A bit like owning a mini cooper. They're pricey though...

I got a MD player that plays MP3s. The newer ones play 1GB minidiscs, so carry two and you're fine.
 
The biggest consideration for a personal player for me was the places that I wear it most frequently. If this is going to be used while skiing/snowboarding, mtn biking, running, skateboarding, or any other harsh environment activity, I would still go with a completely solid state unit - no moving parts. While I acknowledge the significant advances in HD reliability for these applications, I still find it risky to buy a $200+ player that I might "yard sale" with. :D
Since memory cards are relatively cheap, I chose a unit with 256Mb internal plus SD expansion slot. With $25 instant rebate from their catalog I got this Nuvo Sport .
$75+ tax. Single AAA. 768Mb (256 INT +512 SD)current max capacity (I hope future firmware upgrades might do 1gb SD later). I've been ditching "stock" player (cassette, CD, MiniDisc, CD-MP3) headphones for almost 20 years, and use Koss Portapro instead.

Just an opinion (Evildave's idea is excellent too, especially if your car has an MP3 CD player too).

I have no personal experience with the higher dollar, drive based players. Their main advantage is that they will hold (some?)most people's entire music collection.

Good Luck,
Sean
 
In dirty, high impact places, no doubt the solid state devices win.

Sitting in a car or on a plane for a long road trip, the MP3 CD player wins, and is cheap enough to lose without shedding a tear.

If you're going to use it exclusively in your car for a commute, I highly recommend plugging in the $170~$220 for a cheap MP3 capable car stereo without all the graphical junk over dealing with a cassette adapter, wires, etc. and finding a place to keep the portable player. The car stereo players pick up playing where they left off again, and only the pricier portable MP3 players do anything like that, and by the time you add in the accessories to make it play on the car stereo, you're very nearly there WITH a professional installation (though not necessarily a competent one if you take it to Best Buy).

Mostly I just want to hear one sort of music at a time. A 10 hour MP3 CD can generally hold a good selection of any sort of music I'm in the mood for for a very long road trip.

Note: when storing CDs in the car, I've determined that the soft black or grey plastic insert in the polycarbonate jewel case is an awful detriment. That's what warps and wrecks discs in sunlight. Naked CD media, and CD media in the jewel case without the (vinyl?) insert don't generally warp even in direct sunlight (though you shouldn't store them in direct sunlight anyway) without the help of that 'protective' insert. Fortunately, the insert is easily removable, and several discs can fit into one jewel case designed for one disc in your car without the insert.
 
I've got a 20GB Dell DJ. It goes for about $249, but watch for sales (especially now). (I got mine for $229). Compare to iPod's price tag of $299 for the 20GB model. I think iPods are overpriced and they can keep the price high because, well, "Ooooh it's an iPod."
 
I've got one, too. I've had it for about a year now (last year's Christmas present from Hubby), and now that I have figured it out, it's pretty cool.

But.

But there was a LOT of frustration is just trying to figure out how to get my friggin' CDs ONTO the friggin' thing in the first place. There were many times when it went back to being a $200 paperweight, shoved in the back of the "obsolete computer stuff" closet along with all the old mouses and keyboards.

In order to put CDs on your Jukebox, there is no command for "put this CD on my jukebox". You have to go all through this "Copy this to my library", and THEN "put this on my jukebox". Putting CDs on the Jukebox is the primary purpose of owning the thing--why on earth don't they have a one-click command somewhere for that?

And THEN...

...this really drives me crazy...THEN you can have the entire album play in correct track order--as long as they're titled "Track 1", "Track 2", etc. But if you retitle them with their proper titles, then it automatically puts them in alphabetical order by title, so the result is that the cuts on the album will not play in album order, only in alphabetical order.

So if ya wanna listen to your album in ALBUM order, and you want the tracks to have their proper titles, you have to retitle all the tracks--and then you have to put them all in a PLAYLIST, and THEN you have to copy the PLAYLIST to the Jukebox.

My children tell me that this is because most people don't wanna listen to an entire album, they wanna pick and choose certain tracks to make up a playlist. Well, fine, but there should be an OPTION to do it either way, instead of having the unchangeable default be, "we're assuming that you're a teenager who only wants the Good Parts of Avril Lavigne's album."

And the only reason I finally got the thing running last month, after nearly a year, was that my college-kid daughter, the kind of person who takes calculus and physics, finally sat down with the thing and figured it all out, and wrote it all down for me, step by step instructions.

Did I mention that the so-called Help file has absolutely no keywords that correspond to anything you might need help with?

It's marketed towards the tech geek who enjoys fiddling with this sort of thing, not at the housewife who just wants Mannheim Steamroller to keep her company while she mallwalks, who just wants to put her CDs on the jukebox, for heaven's sake...
 
Goshank, this is the first review I've read of the things that I've considered useful.

I've feared much of what you wrote. I started ripping some CDs to my hard drive in anticipation of buying one of these things, but noticed several problems. First, much of my collection is classical. Now, I don't know about you, but I want to browse classical based on composer, not artist. Second, the CD's were very inconsistantly titled. Sometimes the artist field would be the primary performer, sometimes it would be the symphony they were playing with (I'm referring to a concerto, of course), and sometimes it would be the composer. And of course, each composer, performer, etc., is represented in several different ways: JS Bach; J.S. Bach; J. S. Bach; etc. Most classical music consists of several movements, so tracks MUST be played in order, as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, like you, I only want one of the things so I can have all my CDs in one tiny package. But trying to find anything on there sounds more horrific than my current scheme of shuffling through my CDs looking for the one with the bright green cover. I'm thinking I'm going to wait for this technology to mature a bit more.
 
Yeah, it could be a lot more user-friendly than it is. I have the sense, working with it, that the possibilities are there, of titling tracks and artists and composers how you want them, because the "Edit Tag" menu (and whoever heard of calling a menu for "Renaming Tracks" the "Edit Tag" menu?) is quite huge, and has all kinds of blanks to fill in for artists, genre, etc. But ya know, I just don't have time through wade through all that. I need the equivalent of a Point And Shoot camera. One button, no thinking required.

I too have a fairly extensive classical collection, but I'm stumped, for example, as to how to get my Bach Mass in B Minor onto the Dell. Sometimes I might wanna listen to the whole thing all the way through, in which case it'll need to be on there as "Track 1", "Track 2", etc. But then I wouldn't be able to find the Kyrie, if I only wanna listen to the Kyrie. And if I retitle all the tracks, so I can find the Kyrie, then when I tell the album to play, I'll get the Mass in B Minor in alphabetical order, with the "Amen" coming first. So I'd have to make up a Playlist of the Mass in proper order.

Which just sounds like too much work. The technology needs a few more years shakedown period.

But now that I finally got my Mannheim Steamroller on there, it is pretty cool.

And we have also been using it as a jump drive, to move things back and forth from the Windows ME computer to the Windows XP computer. So that's handy.

And my daughter was pleased with the 10 free song downloads she got from Dell online, which came with the software.

So the widget isn't a total loss.

But it's not yet ready for primetime IMO.
 
What you do NOT want to buy is one of the off-brand/unknown brand El Cheapo MP3 players usually featured at Staples and OfficeMax (which came bundled with my new Palm Zire 31 as "free after rebate", and I went for it and now I'm stuck with it, another paperweight), which will probably come with absolutely incomprehensible instructions like this:

"Dream space" disk mode

You could dispart the disk of it into two disk with the incidental tool of the machine and encrypt one of the disk to hide the space, which could make the cryptographic content saved in the machine not be read or picked up by stranger to "stash the mystery"
Click to expand...
We have no idea what "disparting" is, but it comes up as Step 4 in the section titled, "Important Recommendation", during which you are instructed:
MP3 uses should puzzled by "disclose data" who want to others see his "individual data", he could only deletes these "privacy" while friends borrow his MP3, it could bring big trouble. From this day onwards, the function of "dream space" solves the problem drastically."
Click to expand...
And then after you have connected your player to PC and have in Step 3 followed the instructions "begin to dispart by clicking Start", then step 4 is "Finish disparting".

And under "Difficult Problems":
Could not download music normally

Check if USB line broke or be connected validly.
If the driver be installed validly.
Check if it has virgin memorizing unit.
Click to expand...
Dunno what a virgin memorizing unit is, but it conjures up a fascinating mental image...

It said K-Byte on the box, but neither the widget nor the manual have any kind of brand name or website or anything on it, a truly generic MP3 player. I looked up "K-Byte MP3" on Google, and "K-Byte" was the name Staples was featuring the rebate under, but this isn't it. The one we have is red and shaped like half a hot dog, cylindrical.

Even my high school senior son, the one who understands how to hook the Playstation up to the TV set so we can watch DVDs and play Crash Bandicoot, was stumped by this one.
 
I have a 40 gig Creative Zen extra which I love. It cost about 20% less than the iPod when I bought it, if memory serves. It has most of my spoken word collection on it, after a few months spent recording all those tapes...

It does the "pick up where it left off" thing in the car, where it usually lives. A ten hour audio book nicely lasts me though two weeks of commmuting. When travelling, add in a pair of noise cancelling headphones and suddenly planes don't seem too bad any more.
 
As to the problem of track naming vs. ordering, a common method is to rename the file "Track 01 - Title" This will allow the player to play in track order, while allowing you to pick out individual files if need be.
I have a 64 MB Creative NOMAD MuVo. I doesn't hold a lot, and it plays the songs in the order that I copied them to the device, but that is fine for my needs.
 
I've got a 40-gig Zen Xtra from Creative Labs that I paid around $220 last month. The 20 gig version was just under $200.

Size is about the same as a pack of cigarettes. It's roughly the same size as the IPod, just a little thicker. It rides in my shirt pocket while I'm working. I've got just over 100 hours of WMA audio in it (147 CD albums), which takes up about 6 gigs. MP3's take up even less space than WMA's, but WMA's sound better (to me). At that rate, I've got room for almost 600 hours of music.

The Zen Xtra has a user-replaceable lithium battery. Rated life is 14 hours per charge, which I think is VERY conservative. I run mine for over eight hours a day, and show 60% charge left at the end of the day. IPods have to go back to the mother ship to get their battery replaced, which I think runs about $90 a pop, shipping and handling not included. A new Zen battery snaps in place, and lists for $49.

I've got my entire CD collection on it. It took several days in my spare time to transfer all of it, but once that's done, it's a simple matter to add any new CD's I buy. No special interface is needed. It has a USB cable that plugs into my media computer (which runs Windows Media Player, which is why I wanted something portable that used WMA files) and everything washes right into the unit.

Forget using the twinky earbud headphones that come with it. I've got a pair of Sony behind-the-head headphones (the low $19 models) which sound incredible after I tweaked the equalization settings.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with the unit. I no longer lug my laptop to work for music. I'm extremely picky about audio quality, and the Zen Xtra sounds as good as my home system.

Of course, it will be obsolete in two years. ANY player bought today will be. It isn't bleeding edge technology. A 4-gig mini IPod is something like $250 for only a tenth of the storage capacity, plus it locks you into Apple's idea of musical commerce. This should keep me happy for the next two to four years, after which I'll get something newer.

Regards;
Beanbag
 
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