Wrong Robot said:
that's what I think I'll do, find a small one to go along with the big one. Good idea.
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What Mp3 player is the best? What do you have?
- Thread starter 5intheface
- Start date
that's what I think I'll do, find a small one to go along with the big one. Good idea.
I have the Zen Xtra as well. I hardly ever use the eq settings and presets. I like how it sounds and i love the replaceable battery.
Has anybody experience with the iRiver H320 or H340? I was considering one to record rehearsals and live shows on.
THIS is the 'new' daddy. It beats the Ipod on several fronts:
- battery life
- durability
- weight
- size
- sound quality
- HDD G-sensor protection
I'll be replacing my Philips HDD100 with one soon.
Oh, and fellas, do yourselves a favour and get yourself a pair of Etymotic Er-6i headphones. You've never heard your music as well as you do through these babies.
- battery life
- durability
- weight
- size
- sound quality
- HDD G-sensor protection
I'll be replacing my Philips HDD100 with one soon.
Oh, and fellas, do yourselves a favour and get yourself a pair of Etymotic Er-6i headphones. You've never heard your music as well as you do through these babies.
I've been doing a lot of research, and I'm just about sold on the Creative Labs Zen Xtra. For those of you who already use it, where do you get your replacement batteries? How much do they cost?
simpy1 said:
My iTunes puts all of my ripped mp3s into folders by artist name, and then subfolders by album title. No problem finding anything, either.
I've got the 60GB iPhoto, and I absolutely love it. I just passed 10400 songs
with only about 600 cds to go. 
I've never had any need to use any EQ, never had any problem with battery life, and never used the white ear buds that came with it.
jive1
Commercial User
I own an Archos Gmini 400. I chose it over the iPod, and the others for a number of reasons.
- 40 GB of space, and it uses a standard explorer type OS to navigate files. You just copy files to it like you would a hard drive and it will recognize media files and organize them. You don't have to use a program like iTunes or Windows media Player to sync up media files. Just copy and paste. You can also create playlists and organize files on the device itself, independent of a PC.
- Plays videos in AVI format using the Mpeg-4 codec. It comes with a converter program that will let you encode in Mpeg4. The screen is small, but it visible. There's is also an adapter that will let you play files on a TV from the Gmini.
- Displays jpegs and gifs
- Records sound from a microphone or line input into WAV format.
- 10 hours of music playback.
- Reads compact flash cards. Great for dumping images from a digital camera.
- You can play video games on it, but the games and controls are pretty lame.
The main reason why I bought this was because it had more features than most MP3 players in it's price range, and it was smaller than the 40GB iPod or iRiver.
The other thing I was looking for was a MP3 player that worked like a true hard drive. On some players, you can copy a file to it, but it wouldn't play it unless it was synced up using an external program like iTunes. With this player, if it's on the hard drive, it will play it. For me, it is much easier to organize and edit.
The downsides:
- Flimsy buttons. Sometimes I have to hold the power button little longer than ususal, or have to press harder to turn the unit off.
- The sound quality is acceptable, but not as good as the iRiver. It is limited in it's ability to EQ, but hopefully future firmware updates will fix that.
- 40 GB of space, and it uses a standard explorer type OS to navigate files. You just copy files to it like you would a hard drive and it will recognize media files and organize them. You don't have to use a program like iTunes or Windows media Player to sync up media files. Just copy and paste. You can also create playlists and organize files on the device itself, independent of a PC.
- Plays videos in AVI format using the Mpeg-4 codec. It comes with a converter program that will let you encode in Mpeg4. The screen is small, but it visible. There's is also an adapter that will let you play files on a TV from the Gmini.
- Displays jpegs and gifs
- Records sound from a microphone or line input into WAV format.
- 10 hours of music playback.
- Reads compact flash cards. Great for dumping images from a digital camera.
- You can play video games on it, but the games and controls are pretty lame.
The main reason why I bought this was because it had more features than most MP3 players in it's price range, and it was smaller than the 40GB iPod or iRiver.
The other thing I was looking for was a MP3 player that worked like a true hard drive. On some players, you can copy a file to it, but it wouldn't play it unless it was synced up using an external program like iTunes. With this player, if it's on the hard drive, it will play it. For me, it is much easier to organize and edit.
The downsides:
- Flimsy buttons. Sometimes I have to hold the power button little longer than ususal, or have to press harder to turn the unit off.
- The sound quality is acceptable, but not as good as the iRiver. It is limited in it's ability to EQ, but hopefully future firmware updates will fix that.
jive1
Commercial User
Wrong Robot said:
I have a Handspring Treo 600 as my phone. I added a 1GB SD card, pTunes software that lets you play MP3s, and an adapter to plug standard headphones into the phone.
carl-anton said:
Not that model, but I have an iRiver HP120. I love it - mostly.
Pros:
* Actually makes pretty damn good recordings!
* Good battery life... never timed it but it's been great.
* Records to MP3 or uncompressed WAV
* optical in and out! I've made bit-perfect copies from my drummer's DAT.
* plays back MP3, wav, OGG (yes, I'm one of those weird guys that likes OGG)... maybe wma too, I forget because I don't have any of those.
* user-adjustable EQ - but only bass boost and treble boost. (I'd really like to have treble cut as an option.) Plus it has a bunch of presets with SRS and SuperUltraMegaCheezyBass and all that usual crap but I don't use it.
Cons:
* It's not nearly as easy to use as an iPod:
- I still can't figure out how to get shuffle play to work, need to read the manual.
- setting the recording level is a pain, there's no meter while recording so you have to do a trial run and check the playback. It's a lot easier if you have an external mixer and just feed a good line level to the iRiver.
- The organization of options in the various menus seems pretty random, and the pad controller requires you to push in the center for various things and it's too easy to push it to one side by accident (much like my cheapo Sony digital camera).
* internal mic is totally useless crap - distorts easily and picks up tons of hard drive noise. But I have a couple times used it to capture a song idea before it got away, so I'm glad it's there.
* the provided external mic is slightly better than the internal mic - handles higher levels and doesn't pick up the hard drive noise - but it's still crap. It's adequate for my needs for jams and rehearsals, but occasionally I want something that actually sounds good so I need to buy a better stereo mic.
I had good results with a borrowed battery-powered Sony mic, need to find out the model number.
The EQ on the iPod is crap, no way around it. But most audio geeks tend to agree that the bass isn't lacking, but is more neutral and accurate compared to other players. Bass-heavy headphones can be used to compensate, or you can just get used to it.simpy1 said:
If you use them on a regular basis, it's money well spent. I have Shure E2c's ($100) and Sony V6 ($80), and for the endless hours that I put on them they're well worth the money. Now I can't stand using those bundled headphones, they sound horrible in comparison.
And if you think $150 is alot of money for headphones, [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] [Invalid or Expired Link Removed].
Thanks slinkpslinkp said:
From reading reviews on the newer models, it seems like iRiver are continuing the trend with great features and sound, but poor UI. It would be a trade off I could live with though. Didn't think it could record in wav. That's great. I'm gonna use my Røde mic, so that wouldn't be a problem.
carl-anton said:Thanks slinkp
Well, I assume the new model can record .wav too, but it would be good to check with iriver to make sure. If not, you can always bump up the bit rate to get higher-quality mp3 recordings. The HP120 goes all the way up to 320 kbps; for jams and practices I typically use 160 kbps which I figure is overkill until I get a better mic.
About the Rode mic - keep in mind that the mp3 player only has a 1/8" stereo mini-jack input and does not provide phantom power. So your mic needs to be either dynamic, or self-powered, or you need an external phantom power source. And you need to adapt its output to the stupid 1/8" mini-plug.
I have an iRiver H340, and for me it's exactly what i need.
The sound quality is amazing using Etymotic ER6s (i agree with toasted, expensive but money well spent, i didn't go for the 6is because i prefered the black leads) the EQ is also great.
It isn't as easy to use as an iPod, but at the same time i wouldn't call it difficult. It just takes a bit longer to scroll through folders. I really like the layout, and all of the features are easy to get to. The colour screen and the <mock> carbon fibre case are pretty swank too.
I plugged it into the desk to record our set this weekend and it worked perfectly. It's really easy to set the input volume etc, and the result was better than i expected (apart from my playing
) I also tried just plugging a mic into it and putting it on a chair in the corner of our practise room. It came out well despite some slightly dodgy levels. The internal mic is pretty poor, but i think it's only meant for use as a dictaphone so i'm not bothered.
If you're looking for something to record practises/gigs then i'd definitely recommend an iRiver.
The sound quality is amazing using Etymotic ER6s (i agree with toasted, expensive but money well spent, i didn't go for the 6is because i prefered the black leads) the EQ is also great.
It isn't as easy to use as an iPod, but at the same time i wouldn't call it difficult. It just takes a bit longer to scroll through folders. I really like the layout, and all of the features are easy to get to. The colour screen and the <mock> carbon fibre case are pretty swank too.
I plugged it into the desk to record our set this weekend and it worked perfectly. It's really easy to set the input volume etc, and the result was better than i expected (apart from my playing
) I also tried just plugging a mic into it and putting it on a chair in the corner of our practise room. It came out well despite some slightly dodgy levels. The internal mic is pretty poor, but i think it's only meant for use as a dictaphone so i'm not bothered.If you're looking for something to record practises/gigs then i'd definitely recommend an iRiver.
screwball said:
Interesting. Does it show you a level meter while setting the level or during recording? The 120 does not, which drives me nuts.
Tsal said:Too bad it looks fugly and probably is horrendous to use too - those are the two things I value in an Apple product
On the other hand, I do value Apple high as a company..
One the other hand, I think it looks great, and you havent used it so how can up possibly comment on the user interface?
