felters Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 I know I want one but... beyond figuring out that some are disk based, others are using memory sticks AND Apple is restoring it's fortunes on the back of the IPOD. I can't make head or tail of what to buy. Went into Dixons but some spotty yoof gave me complete b*****k for about five minutes before I ran screaming. Anyone got an idiots guide that to what's best? Cheers Bewildered of Hampshire Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC_772 Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 A few pointers: - there are basically two kinds, those which use hard discs for storage and those that don't. Players with hard discs are bigger and heavier and don't react well to shock and vibration, but you can load thousands of tracks as a one-off operation. So, you basically get to carry your entire music collection around with you. Players without hard discs are referred to as 'solid state', and are small, light and indestructible. The downside is that they only hold a few albums at best, so expect regular sessions plugged into your PC every time you want to change the selection of music. - All players can manage MP3, while some also do other formats such as Micro$oft's WMA. My advice is to stick with MP3 - it's tried and tested, well supported, and completely un-cripped by any sort of copy prevention technology. (This last feature alone ensures its acceptance and longevity). If you find a really good player, let me know - I have an Archos Jukebox FM Recorder 20GB, which would be a great player if it didn't lock up every time the battery starts to get low. The IPod, on the other hand, has other well documented battery problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoso Posted January 18, 2004 Share Posted January 18, 2004 I work in a hi fi shop while im at uni, we don't sell Mp3 players but we do sell NetMD players. These are minidisc recorders that can be plugged into your pc via USB and u can stick a hell of alot of stuff on one disc. Minidiscs are 80p each so u can stand on them and not cry, the players start from about 100 squid upwards and the batteries last for ages. They're shock proof and pretty damn small, There so good i bought one! Definatley worth a consideration unless your set on a Mp3 only thingymibob. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felters Posted January 18, 2004 Author Share Posted January 18, 2004 aaahhh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveD Posted January 18, 2004 Share Posted January 18, 2004 its like an MP2 only better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S8ight Posted January 18, 2004 Share Posted January 18, 2004 get a solid state MP3. that way when your wife leaves it in her gym pants and you wash it and then tumble dry it it will still work although this doesnt happen with headphones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stanton Posted January 18, 2004 Share Posted January 18, 2004 I can vouch for an MD player - batteries last ages, sound quality excellent, link it to PC no probs and easy to use. Mines a Sony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I.S.M Posted January 18, 2004 Share Posted January 18, 2004 I have a Creative Muvo 128MB MP3 player. Which is essentially a USB flash drive (i.e. you plug in stright into pc-no wires) it comprises a battery cradle, which seperates from the flash drive part that just plugs straight into back of laptop. Easy as that, and because its sooo easy to do, i dont mind having only 128MB-i.e. about 30 tracks. Bought for £100 from dixons (pre realisation i had no money) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timd Posted January 18, 2004 Share Posted January 18, 2004 I'm using an older 10gig iPod. No problems whatsoever and it means you can take almost your entire music collection with you - which is great if that's what you want. I listen to a lot of music at work so it makes sense for me cos I don't have to keep carting CDs backwards and forwards. If jogging is your thing then obvisouly a hard drive isn't gonna fair too well... The iPod battery "problem" IMO is not really an issue. Most batteries have a "life" and the iPod is no exception. Only thing is it's tricky to open it up to replace the battery when it does finally give up. Not impossible though, and there are aftermarket suppliers of iPod batteries. Anyway, if you have a need to carry about a lot of music (or data for that matter) I wouldn't hesitate to recommend an iPod. In fact, mine's full now and I'll be getting a higher capacity one soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzzer Posted January 18, 2004 Share Posted January 18, 2004 well have disc & memory MP3 players. Got the whole record collection on the PC. great! no more wrongly filed CDs! When anyone gets (buys of course) a CD..put it in the PC. copy to MP3 WITH all the track names automatically got off the net filed under artist & album. Everything at the finger tips. plug the sold state MP3 player or the PDA and upload the tracks in seconds. burn a CD with 10 albums for the car. in 10 mins. great flexibility and easy to manage. mindiscs only one album at a time, bulky and most of them can only record at real time, some faster, but still not down to seconds. I prefer the solid state ones, but IPODs are good, but mostly I use the PDA now for MP3s. It is the way to go Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scruffythefirst Posted January 18, 2004 Share Posted January 18, 2004 I have a minidisc player in the car and couldn't live without it, i've got a dozen or so cds which are now no longer playable due to being thrown round the car. Connect your pc to a minidisc deck with an optical cable and you can have perfect quality recordings (standard minidisc compression sounds better than low bitrate mp3's imho) on mindisc that sound a lot better than mp3's on a cd (depending on the bitrate of course, but anything over 192 takes up lots of space) Plus i have a portable for when lectures get too boring, and its' a lot easier to cary around 2 minidiscs without damaging them than 2 cd's.... Scruffy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timd Posted January 18, 2004 Share Posted January 18, 2004 At the risk of complicating things further - iPods now use MP4, or AAC files. Better quality for a given bitrate, or more file at same quality! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonnyBoy Posted January 18, 2004 Share Posted January 18, 2004 standard minidisc compression sounds better than low bitrate mp3's imho you can hear the difference? thats an aweson stereo you have then! I'm tossing aroung with what to buy at the moment. I had a play with a guests IPod last week and needless to say I was absoluetly amazed with the quality of the industrial design. A beautiful peice of kit! 40gb would be the way for me as I have an enormous amount of mp3's (generally 192 kbit VBR) no different to a CD with a manageable file size. As zoso said, the NetMD is worth looking at too. nice to think that you can chop and change what tunes you listen too by just changing the disc. 4 cd's per MD rings a bell. Sony are also doing solid state memory walkmans that allow you to plug in an extra memory stick aswell.. nice designs too. Just found this on ebuyer. strikes a nice balance between capacity and size - perhaps a little eggsbenny though. In short.. theres far to many to choose from!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mud Posted January 18, 2004 Share Posted January 18, 2004 if you have read my thread about front suspension set up, having just read this ive just realised that i know jack all about mp3 thingys aswell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scruffythefirst Posted January 18, 2004 Share Posted January 18, 2004 you can hear the difference? thats an aweson stereo you have then! Its not that brilliant, but i can tell the difference between some 128 files and cd. I can sometimes hear poor quality bits at 192 through my good set of headphones, but i can't be bothered to change bitrates again. I generaly record my cd's at 192 cbr cos if i do any djing a big pa will show up any problems in the basslines. If someone else is mp3ing a cd for me i tend to prefer them a bit higher bitrate. I'd love an ipod but i'd need about 100G, and would have to convert all my music into mp3's (there in ots at the moment - see here) Not too keen on the net md, I have an inbuilt distrust of any copy protection software and they squash the files, too much. I haven't heard anything through a net md system so would reserve judgement on the actual quality issuse, but md uses compression as standard anyway so compressing things further seems a bit dodgy. Just my tuppence worth Scruffy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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