What Is The Best Portable MP3 Player? 13
0rthanc asks: "Seeing all of this controversy over MP3s has left me with an urge to finally go out and buy one of these portable MP3 players. After looking around I saw a few good looking ones by Diamond and Creative Labs, however, since the Slashdot community always knows best, what MP3 player do you all suggest? "
Re:MP3 players are a joke. (Score:2)
MP3 are about the same quality as CD
(There is a small lost of quality which is why I encode at 160bit, but headphones and most speakers downgrade the quality much more an the compression)
They do this by cutting out sound you can't hear, and compressing the rest.
Pyite statement is as stupid as saying that zipping data means you lose data!
Glynn
Re:MP3 Players (Score:1)
You can physically access the files on the card with other readers, but the proprietary windows only software they include only uses their flash drive. If you do copy an unencrypted .mp3 to the card (I did) you will get ear-damaging garbage through the headphones.
Of course, they don't say this on the box, on their web site, in the manual on their site, or in the manual in the box. It is only on a little yellow addendum included with the manual.
Way too much hassle for me. Pity, they almost got it right. Mine went back.
Easy answer. (Score:2)
All the portable mp3 players I've seen have been 32mb standard, usually with a 64mb upgrade doubling the cost of the unit. Where's the storage?
From all the stats I've seen (and I *KNOW* you guys are going to correct me) this only works out as storing 1 album. I'm not being pesimistic, I actually want one, but I'm not shelling out for something that's not going to play more music than an old cassette walkman. Cost versus functions.
Laptops are getting smaller, palmtops are getting cooler, it makes more sense to buy one of these and a cheap set of 'phones.
Now if most mp3 players were around 250mb, and the same price region... then they'd shift a few more, and we might be able to scrap the old cassette technology for good.
(dismounting my soapbox now)
Re:Mini Disc (Score:1)
Re:Why go dedicated when you can be MODULAR? (Score:1)
But they are on their way and hopefully will be out at the time of the player itself. plus, the 32 meg ones are much cheaper than "SmartMedia" 32mb modules - SM go for about $100 a pop, while the whole MP3 package, with TWO 32 meg MMC modules is supposed to retail for $225 - subtract the 100 for the "bare" model and you have $125 for the TWO 32 meg modules, so they are much cheaper than the SM modules...
Why go dedicated when you can be MODULAR? (Score:2)
1.) It uses "MMC" memory cards, not the crappy "smartmedia" that all of the Rios and their breathren use.
2.) it has NO builtin memory, but has TWO card slots.
What's good about these things? The BIGGEST good point - MMC cards come in 64 MB size. Now onto point number two. Think. 64+64 == 128 Mbytes of MP3 storage. THE LARGEST SOLID STATE SIZE ON THE MARKET, at this moment. Plus, because BOTH cards are removable, if/when a 128mb module comes out, you can stick in two of those, instead of being stuck with a base 64mb and only having the versatility of ONE addon.
The thing runs off of the batteries on the Visor, but also has a plug for an external adaptor. Est. retail price for a memory-less model: $100.
They say a 64 meg version should go for $225.
STILL cheaper than a 64 meg Rio500, and WOW, it uses USB to load (right through your handspring)... you can play the audio while using the visor too, the player has all its own DSPs and stuff, just uses the visor for batteries and (if you want) display of ID3 tags.
Yes, i have linkage. Right here. Check Innogear [innogear.com]'s "MiniJam [innogear.com]" out.
If you found this informative, well, MODERATE it!
Re:4 GB MP3 player that holds 1200 mp3s available. (Score:1)
got one of these as a suprise gift, and already
I really like it. Had just been thinking about
the MP3-portable thing, and here it is.
First off, the thing's got a disk. Upside: 4.6 GB. Yeah, like 4600 megabytes or about 80 hours.
Downside: when's it going to headcrash and take
me out? Oh, and by the way, the LIon battery is
supposed to go 10 hours (the doc explains that
although running the HD is taxing, they actually
get 10 minutes of music loaded to RAM from a 10 second burst, then shut down the drive again - I guess this means they have at least 10 Mbytes of RAM in it for pre-cache).
Secondly, it's expensive (around $600-$700?), but
the price per playtime minutes - something like
$0.15 per min? Who wants to calculate out the
others? From a quick look, it looks like they're
all $3+ per minute for 1+ hour boxes (or, 1% of
the storage for around a quarter the cost).
Third: I have a very no-frills unit actually
produced by "Hy-Tek" and called the [musiccompressor.com]
"Compressor Personal Jukebox". There's
also [pjbox.com]
Personal Jukebox PJB-100", which is the
product name I remembered seeing on
back. Both are licensed from
[compaq.com]
Compaq (and Fraunhofer).
Last: the software is OK (not great), but does
support CDDB lookups of the discs you rip, and
I've had no real problems yet (like it killing
files off my HD like I've heard other one do).
Anyway, I see no other large-scale device like
this out there - what's the deal?
MP3 Players (Score:2)
Re:MP3 players are a joke. (Score:1)
MP3 players are a joke. (Score:2)
4 GB MP3 player that holds 1200 mp3s available... (Score:1)
Mini Disc (Score:2)
Here's my $.02 (Score:1)