MP3 player purchase

[Hammer]

Hi all,
My wife and I are planning on getting either 1 or 2 MP3 players. Do we really need to get an Ipod or are there other brands that will do the same job for a better price (same quality though). I know there are websites with this info but I have trusted a lot of the other info here at Bfan.net so I thought I would give y'all a chance to impress http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif
Thanks,
Hammer

(added tag --1992)

[brewdude15]

i guess there are some really nice ones for about $100. I think the only thing you really get from an iPod is the brand name. I don't have an MP3 player, myself, but I have been looking at buying them for a while, and I have used my friend's a couple times.

[JumpinMacFlash]

I got an iPod Shuffle for Christmas this year. They cost around $80. It's handy because it's small and will clip on anything. It's great for running or exercise of any kind, really. It's only 1GB, but that doesn't bother me because I can still fit up to 20 hours of music on it. There's no large display, so the battery life is excellent also. The only thing is, I hate dealing with iTunes. I have it figured out now (I think), but it seems like an unnecessary step. I doubt I would have gotten one on my own, but now that I have it, I really enjoy it.

[bullox]

I am a fan of my iAudio X5L although it is now 2 1/2 years old and getting a bit dated...it plays every audio format under the sun, plays video on its tiny screen, and has a whopping 35 hrs battery life with its 30 GB of storage. I am honestly thinking of selling it now though and just having a portable XM+mp3 player in its place.

[Fatter than Joey]

I am a pimp for Creative Labs products -- I hooked my mom up with the Vision Zen (30GB) -- so she can download audio books and listen to them -- she is about as competent with electronics as Gilligan and she loves it. She got it on sale at Circuit City for $199.

[soup can for prez]

I have an ipod video which if I say so myself is very nice and I use it just about every day (I have had no problems with it yet). When I was doing research for my next mp3 player I discovered the Zune made by microsoft. Now the only thing I had a big problem with the Zune was the software. So whatever product you are thinking of, you might want to download the software first so you are comfortable with it.

[davebobn]

I'm with Joey on this one - Creative is the way to go. There may be fewer accessories, but do you really need an I-Dog to go along with your I-Pod? Creative builds their products to last. My Zen Micro has dings everywhere from being dropped on daily basis ( I've got a serious case of butterfingers) and the screen still works perfectly. Though after everyday use since 2004 my headphone jack has simply worn out. I recently contacted Creative about the problem and its only going to cost $60 with shipping and handling to fix. Compare that to $200 for a simple battery replacement with Apple.

[Fatter than Joey]

Yeah -- I still am rolling dirty with my Zen Jukebox from 2002. (20GB). I bought my kids 3 Creative Labs devices -- and they use, abuse and love them

 

Another note -- if you are into Audio Books, you cannot use Ipods or Zunes to download them from your local library (in a lot of cases).

[BrewCrewForever]

I have had my 30GB video iPod for almost two years and it is the best purchase I have ever made. No question.

[Marleyboo]

I'm also in the market for one. My biggest question is with ipods can i only add music from the itunes store and once i buy it i can only use it on my ipod? Are there any players that i can upload my music library without worrying about copyright infringments? If i sound like a total idiot please go easy on me.http://static.yuku.com/v2//domainskins/bypass/img/smileys/wink.gif

[BrewCrewForever]

I'm also in the market for one. My biggest question is with ipods can i only add music from the itunes store and once i buy it i can only use it on my ipod? Are there any players that i can upload my music library without worrying about copyright infringments? If i sound like a total idiot please go easy on me.http://static.yuku.com/v2//domainskins/bypass/img/smileys/wink.gif

You can use any music. You just have to import the files into your itunes program. And you can rip cd's into your itunes library as well.

 

[cweber39]

I have an Ipod it's an older one, so I had to replace the battery on it. I did it myself and was much cheaper than taking it to Apple. My one sister went through 2 Ipod Mini's each time they had the frown face on them. My brother had the same problem with an older Ipod and my other sister just had problems with her Ipod Nano. After all these problems my Dad got a Zune and so far really likes it.

[BrewCrewForever]

Yeah some people have problems with their iPod's. I have not had any whatsoever yet. (Knock on wood.) But I also bought the service plan from Best Buy when I bought the ipod, so that is a good option to have.

[Hammer]

Thanks for all of the help guys/gals!

[patrickgpe]

i got the ipod shuffle as well as like it alot. Very reasonably priced, very light weight. Its great that you can put a few songs on it for a run or whatever.

[bjkrautk]

I'm also in the market for one. My biggest question is with ipods can i only add music from the itunes store and once i buy it i can only use it on my ipod? Are there any players that i can upload my music library without worrying about copyright infringments? If i sound like a total idiot please go easy on me.http://static.yuku.com/v2//domainskins/bypass/img/smileys/wink.gif

You can use any music. You just have to import the files into your itunes program. And you can rip cd's into your itunes library as well.

 

 

Slight caveat: if you've purchased music from Napster, Wal-Mart, etc. in .wma format, you need to burn the songs to a CD and then rip them as .mp3 (or .aac -- but .mp3 will work on any player) before they'll play on an iPod. (In copyright terms, this is what's known as the "analog hole" in digital rights management.)

 

I went from a 256mb RCA Lyra to a 30GB iPod (with video) and have never looked back. iTunes is the best reason to buy an iPod, IMO; I know there are other programs out there that would check for updates and download all of my podcasts (I subscribe to ~ 20), but Apple makes it simple. (...and that's coming from a PC guy; the iPod is the first and only Apple product I've ever purchased.) I did have an issue with the headphone jack on mine, but the extended warranty @ Best Buy took care of that.

[Hammer]

One last question (sorry, this just came to me). I am putting in a new cd deck into my car and some of them are able to be hooked up to an Ipod in a manner that you can use the deck to control the Ipod. Will this work in the same manner with any of the other brands?

Thanks,

Hammer

[davebobn]

BJ you should be able to find programs online that can convert .wmas into .mp3s. I'd look around before wasting all sorts of CD-Rs.

[Phenomenal Smith]

I got an iPod Shuffle for Christmas this year. They cost around $80. It's handy because it's small and will clip on anything. It's great for running or exercise of any kind, really. It's only 1GB, but that doesn't bother me because I can still fit up to 20 hours of music on it. There's no large display, so the battery life is excellent also. The only thing is, I hate dealing with iTunes. I have it figured out now (I think), but it seems like an unnecessary step. I doubt I would have gotten one on my own, but now that I have it, I really enjoy it.

Ditto to all that. I love my iPod Shuffle, but I had some problems getting it to work with iTunes. It was probably just something screwy with my computer. I ended up buying a plug-inn for Windows Media Player and I add tunes that way.

 

[Diskono]

BJ you should be able to find programs online that can convert .wmas into .mp3s. I'd look around before wasting all sorts of CD-Rs.

 

Either way, you are re-encoding already compressed music, which lowers quality. That's the main reason I still buy CDs - I can convert them to any format I like, and not have to deal with a ton of incompatible proprietary DRM formats.

[brettac1]

Yep, exactly. Transcoding lowers the quality of a song.

 

The best thing is to buy CD's and use LAME Encoder and Exact Audio Copy and rip the mp3's in V0 format, which is as close to lossless quality as you can get in mp3. It's seems very complicated, but it's really not and it is a noticeable difference.

 

I have an iPod, but I too hate iTunes. It's the worst, but I use it to load my iPod. Playback is always choppy in it, and it's such a memory hog that I can't stand using it more than the once a week or so when I will add/remove songs from my iPod. Not to mention the lameness of the Music Store, where you get the stupid m4p files that you can't use with anything but iTunes without the aforementioned converting. I pay for the stupid song I should be able to do whatever I want with it. That's why a tasteful mix of buying CD's and illegal downloading is the way to go.

[valpocrewsader]

One last question (sorry, this just came to me). I am putting in a new cd deck into my car and some of them are able to be hooked up to an Ipod in a manner that you can use the deck to control the Ipod. Will this work in the same manner with any of the other brands?

Someone can correct me if this is wrong, I'm not really up on this stuff....

 

This is a good question to raise. Your intuition is right ... iPods' popularity really has pushed it way ahead in terms of compatibility with aftermarket decks. In addition to some decks being built to integrate with iPods very easily, there are also a good number of iPod car gadgets made by third parties that will retro fit your deck to control the iPod or give you a separate/convenient interface for working with your iPod as it plays through your deck. This selling point is about the only thing that would steer me towards an iPod, but it's a relatively convincing one.

 

The audio from any mp3 player could be run through your deck, using rear inputs (if the deck has one, good quality), a front 1/8" input (if your deck has one, good quality), an FM transmitter (fair quality), a casette tape converter (if it's a tape deck, fair quality), or through the rear antenna input (fair+ quality) ... you would just have to control the mp3 player on its own.