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MP3 player
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Posted by: George

I'm thinking of buying some sort of MP3 player, needs to be able to hold around 100 CD's at reasonable quality. The IPOD seems the de-facto standard around here but it has been out for a while now, has anything superseeded it or should I just go and buy one?

Cheers

George

Posted by: iankb

I've got an original 5GB iPod, and would only ever replace it with a 40GB iPod. Instantly on, very readable and fast menus. Also makes a good portable drive.

Apple are bringing out a new mini-iPod, which will be available in April.

Posted by: sanderton

No, nothing has superceded it. Some of the rival players offer different compression types to the iPod's MP3 or AAC, but that only makes a difference if you have a pre-existing collection of WMP or Ogg Vorbis tracks. Nothing is a small and neat.

Posted by: catfud

The Ipod is a lovely little bit of kit but you should be aware of some issues regarding its batteries. For almost half the price and only slighlty less sexy (in my eyes) is the Creative Zen Xtra which, according to some, has a better sound, as well as replaceable batteries. These are becoming increasingly hard to get hold of though (but this does seems to be leading to some good deals if you search about) which leads me to think Creative might be introducing some new models in the near furture.
Neill

Posted by: iankb

I presume that the Creative Zen is a significant improvement over the original Creative Jukeboxes. I had one of the originals, and one of the main problems was that it took as long to boot up as a PC. My iPod is instantly on.

Posted by: Automan

I have had several hard disk based mp3 players, five I think. And I now have and use a 40Gb iPod.

I like it a lot except for
Poor battery life 6 to 7 hrs of use if you don't keep skipping tracks.
Battery cant be user replaced without physical damage to iPod case.
Very easy to scratch
If not used for a few days tends to forget where you were in a playlist and does the equivalent of a cold boot (displays apple logo).
If you want to download your entire collection it must be powered or the battery will run flat half way through the process.

Nice features
You can give tracks star ratings and make smart playlists e.g. Artist = "Weird Al" more than 3 stars and not played in six months.
Compact size.
Style.
Sleep timer.
Wake up to music alarm.
Battery charge time under 4 hrs.
Itunes software for Windows (don't have to use Musicmatch anymore).

Re battery life I also purchased the Belkin external battery pack (4 x AA's).

I found this was useless when loaded with 4 x Duracells but loaded with 4 x 15min recharge 2Ah Nickel Metal Hydride AA's it goes on forever (even if the backlit display is set to always on).

I'm not sure if 15min recharge AA's and chargers are on sale yet in the UK.
http://www.rayovac.com/15minutes/index.html

Automan.

Posted by: cyril

I use a Handspring Treo with 3gb of 512MB SD cards myself, but will probably give the mini-ipod a go.

Damn you Automan, I'm going to have to buy those 15min recharge AAs!

Posted by: sanderton

Depends how you use it. My iPod is my office jukebox or (soon) for in the car, so is always powered and batteries don't come into it.

Before I got a spare power adaper for the office I found the batteries could do a full working day (just).

Posted by: kitschcamp

For office/home use, I'm now a total and utter devotee to the Slimp3. Absolutely adore it - that's changed how I listen to music in the same was as Tivo has tv.

Posted by: iankb

I don't really understand the fascination of the Slimp3, since it hasn't got a proper browse screen for selection of tracks. Even worse if you aren't sitting in front of the limited display that it does have.

At least the Creative Wireless Music (that's supposed to be coming to this country soon) has a wireless remote with a built-in interactive browse screen. Even those that use the TV screen for browsing must be better than the Slimp3.

Posted by: kitschcamp

If I'm listening to music, I don't want the TV on. It's the last thing I want on.

If I'm listening to music, I'll typically be working on the PC - the selection of tracks etc from the PC to play on the Slimp3 is very easy via a browser.

If you've planned out hte layout of your MP3 server properly you'll be able to choose whatever mood you want very easily from the slimp3. It's not a handicap - the simlicity is a major boon.

Posted by: George

OK, what s the scam then? Just been looking at Ipods on Ebay and it is full of people offering a link to buy them for penuts. Obviously it is a scam but there are too many for it to be one person pulling a fast one.

Posted by: iankb

I can't spot any great deals for working iPods. There are several US sellers supplying to the UK, who are taking advantage of the excellent currency exchange rates. However, you have to pay their shipping costs, and may have to pay VAT, duty and the associated collection charge.

Also, when reading the comments about sellers, I noticed items such as Ł60 shipping charges (Ł25 handling charge included), etc.

Posted by: cyril

quote:
Originally posted by George
OK, what s the scam then? Just been looking at Ipods on Ebay and it is full of people offering a link to buy them for penuts. Obviously it is a scam but there are too many for it to be one person pulling a fast one.

Pyramid scam cometh to my mind.

OT:
One thing that isn't a scam, but is freely available info is that Microsoft will give you a 10 grand discount on software if you buy directly from them. Some jokers charge 50 quid for this info on Ebay:

I am not kidding. just google Microsoft Action pack

http://members.microsoft.com/partne...erMarket/Action

Posted by: sanderton

Just took delivery of one of these on Friday:

http://www.everythingipod.com/products/proimage/w009-2002.jpg

Working very nicely indeed; the FM transmitter gives good sound quality

Posted by: iankb

Assuming that you meant the DLO Transpod, are they actually legal in the UK yet? Not that it matters to me. ;)

Posted by: sanderton

Er, might be. :)

Posted by: iankb

:D

Posted by: pukka

Stuart
where did you get it from have you got a link??

Paul

Posted by: sanderton

www.everythingipod.com

Posted by: iankb

Komplett have the 40GB iPod at Ł312 for this week only. That is a saving of over Ł85.

Posted by: cyril

40gb ipod is about 270 quid or less here in HK.

I've got a 4gb Creative Nomad Muvo2 which is FANTASTIC.

The 20gb Archos Gemini220 looks like an iPod-killer to me!

Posted by: sanderton

Not sure about the looks.

http://www.surcouf.com/images/Catalogue/10/09/54/m9540910.jpg

Posted by: George

quote:
Originally posted by iankb
Komplett have the 40GB iPod at Ł312 for this week only. That is a saving of over Ł85.

Well, my use will mainly be mobile and after reading the stuff about dodgy batteries (not just here I might add) I took a quick swerve and placed an order for a Creative JukeBox Zen NX Extra 60GB.

Then I saw that cool gadget for putting an Ipod in the car that may or may not be present in the UK! ;)

Bu66er, too late now.

George

Posted by: cyril

quote:
Originally posted by sanderton
Not sure about the looks.

http://www.surcouf.com/images/Catalogue/10/09/54/m9540910.jpg

iPod has ALWAYS been the best looking mp3 player, but IMHO is generally beaten by others in features and price now.

Posted by: iankb

Apart from looks, I can't see how a 4GB Creative Nomad Muvo2 is going to compete with a 40GB iPod if you have more than 4GB of music.

Posted by: Dr Spanner

One of my mates just got back from Canada so I got him to bring me a mini i-pod. It worked out at Ł147, a bargain I reckon. 4 Gig is not enough to store all my music, but at around 3 days music back to back, it is enough...

Posted by: iankb

What I love about my iPod is the ability to play tracks randomly from the complete collection. I get to listen to all of those tracks that I had forgotten about and, for it's surprise element, it's almost as good as TiVo suggestions. That is what makes the difference between a memory-based MP3 player and a hard-drive based one.

Posted by: sanderton

Agreed; now that I have 9,456 tracks loaded, playing at random pulls up all kinds of things I'd forgotten about, as well as tracks from CD I never really got around to listening to properly (and embarassing stuff from the 80s, but hey..)

I found that it repeated itself suprisinglu often, however, so set up a playlist of unplayed tracks and have that on random play, so it should be a few months before I hear a repeat!

On ething which suprised me was how many copies of certain songs I had, because they'd made it onto so many compilations.

I had to delete EIGHT duplicates of Motorheads Ace of Spades...

Posted by: iankb

I also get the impression that the iPod does not simply play randomly through the whole collection. I think that it probably selects a random sub-set, and then plays randomly through that. The sub-set might also be based upon a random set of albums, rather than a random set of tracks. If so, what I don't know is what the trigger is that recreates the sub-set.

However, if you look at it statistically, the chances that at least one track will repeat if you listen to 50 tracks, is probably quite high.

Posted by: cyril

I bought the Gmini Archos 220. Not as nice as an iPod, but having the built in memory card reader is FANTASTIC!

No longer have to buy expensive Sony memory sticks for my Sony T1!!

Posted by: cyril

I still like the speakers on my i2go ego mp3 player.

Always nice not to have to use headphones :)

The Treo 600 speakers rock for mp3 playback too!

But now I have a tapwave and the in-built speakers are pretty good! It's not a bad PDA either, though the hotsync cable is crap.

Posted by: Dr Spanner

quote:
I don't really understand the fascination of the Slimp3, since it hasn't got a proper browse screen for selection of tracks. Even worse if you aren't sitting in front of the limited display that it does have.

I've got a SLIMP3 with a wireless bridge in the living room and a new Squeezebox (built in WIFI) in the kitchen. You can control both with a laptop connected to the wireless network.

You can sync both machines so they play the same music. Quite a neat solution of multi-room sound without taking a drill to the walls...