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What Mp3 player is the best? What do you have?

5

5intheface

Dec 18, 2004
96
1
#1
Heylo all, I am finally venturing into the world of portable mp3 music come my 17th birthday next Saturday.

But I do not know which Mp3 to wish for. Which is the best in your opinion and why? What do you have? What do you like about or dislike about it?

My friends all have iPods and live and die by the iPod. But I also know a couple people who had iPods and swore off of them because they were cheap quality and too expensive. I think I agree, knowing that they only last 500 battery charges....Any iPods users agree/disagree?

I also have a buddy with an HP digital Jukebox or whatever and swears it's the greatest thing since the condom, but everyone else who has an iPod says it's cheap crap for no reason.

So any input is greatly appreciated.
 
#2
The early iPods had a bad rap w.r.t. flakey batteries (the unit had to be returned to Apple™ to have them replaced every year or so!) - apparently that problem has now been fixed.

I've had my Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra 40G for just under a year and I've been very happy with it (I have around 5000 tunes on it at the moment - it's just over half full). Whenever I get a new CD I rip it on to the Zen Xtra, and I have access to my tunes just about instantly, wherever I am. I use it in my car and at home I have a tiny FM tuner which pugs into the Zen, then I tune all the radios in my house to the tuner, and I have music wherever I go in the house (no adverts, and it beats the inane †drivel which the FM stations here in the North East USA seem so fond of pumping out 24x7)

The iPod is the most popular player by far, but is still much more expensive than the Zen Xtra.

I think for casual listening, the device can't be beat - it's very convenient to have music on the go. The user-interface on the Zen is just as clunky as the UI on all the others (IMNSHO) - you pays your money, you takes your choice!

I hope this helps -

Good Luck!

- Wil

† including the NPR stations - they pretend to be non-commercial, and then keep reminding you about their wonderful under-writers - every 2 or 3 minutes… non-commercial! my arse!!!!
 
#3
I have an 40 gig iPod Photo at the moment. I've been an iPod user for a good long while now. I've never had any problems with them, so I can't really comment on that. The thing that sets iPod apart is its awesome interface. I haven't seen a single player with a better one. Oh, that and little teenage girls see them as a fashion accesory :\.
 
#4
The Zen Touch is working for me - not many accessories or extra functions...but it gets the job done, is mad cheap, and has a long battery. (My first test exceeded 28 hours with the EQ on, backlight at 50%...yeha)

Just don't expect many new firmware updates and there have been issues with the headphone jacks breaking...but not with mine (a little bit, but nothing major and I could probably fix it myself)

And the EQ sucks - 4 bands that are pretty much broken; the presets are OK - I'd recommend just getting good headphones...

Hm, I think I might've discouraged you more than i encouraged you to get this...:P
 
#6
Wil Davis said:
The early iPods had a bad rap w.r.t. flakey batteries (the unit had to be returned to Apple™ to have them replaced every year or so!) - apparently that problem has now been fixed.

I've had my Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra 40G for just under a year and I've been very happy with it (I have around 5000 tunes on it at the moment - it's just over half full). Whenever I get a new CD I rip it on to the Zen Xtra, and I have access to my tunes just about instantly, wherever I am. I use it in my car and at home I have a tiny FM tuner which pugs into the Zen, then I tune all the radios in my house to the tuner, and I have music wherever I go in the house (no adverts, and it beats the inane †drivel which the FM stations here in the North East USA seem so fond of pumping out 24x7)

The iPod is the most popular player by far, but is still much more expensive than the Zen Xtra.

I think for casual listening, the device can't be beat - it's very convenient to have music on the go. The user-interface on the Zen is just as clunky as the UI on all the others (IMNSHO) - you pays your money, you takes your choice!

I hope this helps -

Good Luck!

- Wil

† including the NPR stations - they pretend to be non-commercial, and then keep reminding you about their wonderful under-writers - every 2 or 3 minutes… non-commercial! my arse!!!!
Click to expand...


^^^ what he said.
 
#8
I have an iPod. It is fine and is definitely worth the $300 you can spend on them (i have the 20 gb version, and yes, i can fill it up, easily. I have 35.2 gigs of music). It isnt the best value, but the reason they sell is for the small size and nice controls.

You can get cheaper ones that are larger and not as easy to use. For this i would recomend the Creative brand.
 
#9
I also have the 40 gig Zen Xtra. I think the only down sides it has are that its a little bit bigger than an iPod (it will still easily fit in your pocket however) and that the interface isnt as easy to use at first. For the price difference though, I think the Zen Xtra is the way to go. Ill admit that the iPods are cool and seem to be the trendy thing to have. I like just about everything about iPods aside from the fact that you have to use iTunes, which I hate. I guess it just came down to, for me, was if the extra hundred or two dollars was worth the few little differences. I say do a little research on the Zen Xtra. If you have any questions you have at least two people here who are willing to try answering them.

And then there is the fact that I got mine for $130. :)
 
#10
old_skool said:
I also have the 40 gig Zen Xtra. I think the only down sides it has are that its a little bit bigger than an iPod (it will still easily fit in your pocket however) and that the interface isnt as easy to use at first. For the price difference though, I think the Zen Xtra is the way to go. Ill admit that the iPods are cool and seem to be the trendy thing to have. I like just about everything about iPods aside from the fact that you have to use iTunes, which I hate. I guess it just came down to, for me, was if the extra hundred or two dollars was worth the few little differences. I say do a little research on the Zen Xtra. If you have any questions you have at least two people here who are willing to try answering them.

And then there is the fact that I got mine for $130. :)
Click to expand...
I dont see the complaint or argument against ipods for 'having to use itunes' .. have to use it for what? The only thing it is necesary to use for is transfering songs to your ipod, which you may do what, once, or once every few months? You can still listen to all your music with whatever you like to use, i use WMP.
 
#11
Figjam said:
I dont see the complaint or argument against ipods for 'having to use itunes' .. have to use it for what? The only thing it is necesary to use for is transfering songs to your ipod, which you may do what, once, or once every few months? You can still listen to all your music with whatever you like to use, i use WMP.
Click to expand...
It tries to take over everything involving media (OK, so minor thing, every media player does it), but what gets me is that it duplicates everything it has to convert into iTunes to put onto the player and just leaves them there rather than a conversion of the original file, thus leaving these duplicates filling up unnecessary space on your computer.
 
#12
I would choose a classic 20gb white I-pod. :) I’d wear my old headphones tho, cause I hate looking like a poser who just has an I-pod to be cool. That’s what I hate about the I-pod, it’s too famous. I can’t deny the awesomeness of I tunes and the whole set up and all that stuff tho. ;)
 
#13
I have an Ipod and I love it. I've had no problems with it whatsoever. Keep in mind though that I have a Mac so Itunes didn't take everything over as it was the only software I had used for my music anyway. On the downside, I ride some shady buses downtown and thus wear aftermarket headphones so no one knows I have an Ipod. Some people have been jacking Ipod owners in public lately. :scowl:
 
#16
I have a Samsung yepp with 256mb. It's pretty cool, there are no real buttons on it, it uses a touch pad. The only real problem with it is the fact that it only contains 256mb at a time. But theres the option to compress the songs to fit more, I've never tried that.
 
#18
the first time i ripped my entire library of CDs to be stored on the computer i used .WMA format. then i copied all of those to CD-Rs as a backup. i learned the hardway that you have to backup the licenses also if you are going to protect them. after a format of my machine a few months later, i had a bunch of useless CD-Rs with WMA files and no licenses it was completely my ignorance but since then i have sworn off .WMA just to make myself feel better. :)

i hated iTunes at first too, since i was used to Music Matchs amazing library capabilities. But i couldnt stand a media player that was 46 Mb, for the install program, and took almost an entire minute just to start up.

now i am using a Mac and now i have learned how to set up iTunes. i still dont like the way it stores music in its own folder that i have to wade three or four directories down to get at.
 
#19
Martybass said:
It tries to take over everything involving media (OK, so minor thing, every media player does it), but what gets me is that it duplicates everything it has to convert into iTunes to put onto the player and just leaves them there rather than a conversion of the original file, thus leaving these duplicates filling up unnecessary space on your computer.
Click to expand...

+1
This is exactly what I was refering to.
 

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