mp3 player for inter rail trip

sound_wave

hey all,
Right im going inter railing in mid august so im trying to get everything sorted before hand. Im just wondering has anyone any recommendations on an mp3 player, preferibly a non HDD one as it might get a lot of abuse on the road. Im going for a month so it must have space for a good few songs and most importantly the price not too expensive, also a radio would be nice too.
Any recommendations much appreciated lads

Thanks

cormie

I'd go with a CD based player. Flash can be quite expensive and you could hold more on a CD than the average flash player. It can be quite irritating listening to the same songs over and over. I say you go with CD player if not HDD. Althought HDD would definitely be the better choice, I understand your concern of travelling, you don't want something like iRiver IHP series to get lost. Maybe just get a cheapo CD player so.

subway_ie

I just got one from Shop4Memory for €85 - it's only 128MB, but it does have a radio and lasts about 8-9 hours on a single AAA battery. It doesn't exactly feel "sturdy" but I don't think any MP3 players do (non-hard disk ones anyway).

sound_wave

thanks for the replies lads, i was thinking cd alright but then i gotta keep switching and then theres the size issue too, i want something small that would fit in my pocket or around my neck, although if it come to it, i wouldnt mind, ill check out that shopfor memory site, must dash now.Thanks again. Any other recommendations?

cormie

Check out the other post about the €120 HD player, the rio riot. 20gb hd based player. It's pretty chunky but still. You cant beat having 500 albums at your fingertips.

I would seriously go for CD buddy, you could carry as many albums as you want on CD. Flash is very limiting! I doubt cybercafes would allow mp3 downloading and transferring to flash either so you could be stuck with what you initially dump on your flash for the 3 months or however long you go for.

Explosive_Cornflake

Yeah, i'd go with an mp3 cd player. It would be cheaper than a HD player, and a bit more robust, just burn a couple of cdr's going and get yourself some batterys and your sorted. The HD player would limit you on battery life, but someone found a battery pack thats fits the IHP in maplins, so thats also an option, but for travelling you'd be safer with mp3 cd's i think.

Robbo

I'd recommend a Net MD. You fit ~320 mins of music per disc (usually less than 2 quid a pop), you can fire the mp3s over to it via USB and most of them have the bonus of being able to run off AA batteries.

It's also small.

Explosive_Cornflake

At 320 mins per disc the sound is horrible. True it would be smaller, but if your bringing a lot of discs it evens out.

Mutant_Fruit

I'd definately advise against anything less than a 512mb one, and even that wouldn't be enough really.

If you don't want a HD based mp3 player, get a minidisc player, and a 20pack of minidiscs for all your music. THere's nothing worse than buying a 128mb player, and being sick of hearing the same songs for the 30th time that day.

subway_ie

It depends really on how much music you've actually got... The only reason I bought the 128MB was because I don't have a huge collection and it was the onyl sub-€100 with a radio in it.

Creamy Goodness

how about a 4 gig muvo thingy?


they're about the size of a MD Player aren't they?

Robbo

Originally posted by Explosive_Cornflake
At 320 mins per disc the sound is horrible. True it would be smaller, but if your bringing a lot of discs it evens out.

Unless you're listening in a quiet room with a pretty good set of headphones, I've found LP4 to be more than adequate for stuff on the go.

Also, wrt to the 4 Gb Muvo, they're tempting but perhaps it's worth noting that the battery life is 12 hours on them, after which you're reaching for a foreign mains socket.

peckerhead

One other advantage of a CD player — if you're interrailing, I presume you'll be away for a month. You can fit an awful lot of music onto a half-dozen CD-Rs, which take up f*** all space if you sleeve them rather than carrying individual cases... Also, with a CD player, you're sorted if you meet up with someone else who says "Oh, here, stick this on..." (or if you buy any cheapies in a market in Budapest or something...)

Guess that's two advantages, really!

peckerhead

cormie

you can get a decent mp3 cd player for a decent price.
Check here, scroll down and have a look at the imp-550. It's really good and pretty cheap. Do a quick search to see if that is the cheapest place to get it though.

When your travelling by train, it doesn't really matter if you have a cd player or flash (size wise) but it will when it comes to music. You need as much music as you can get and MP3CDP is the best way. NetMD is a bit too pricey I'd say.

fenris

For lots of traveling think about a few audiobooks on mp3, kills time much better than music if you are stuck waiting somewhere - no 3.5 minute marker every time the song changes !

There is a lot of stuff that you probably would never read but is grand for listening to !

It can be good to hear some spoken english one in a while, and listening to a spy novel just as you get into bulgaria, berlin or vienna can be a bit of a buzz when you see the places that are mentioned. Some authors are very acurate in their descriptions, it can some times lead you to parts of a city or country that you would never know existed, or give you a slightly different view of the place. For a bit of a buzz try Neil Gaimen's Neverwhere while on a visit to London especially if you are using the tube.

audible

Is a good source.

If you are going to spend any time on planes then you probably will not be allowed to use a CD based player.

Enjoy !

cormie

Originally posted by fenris


If you are going to spend any time on planes then you probably will not be allowed to use a CD based player.

Enjoy !

Why is that? how would a cd player interfere?

fenris

Some hysteria about "Laser control technology" think they are worried abour fastforward on your cd player taking over the plane and making it fly to somalia or somewhere.

They can be very serious about it though, saw a yank getting stroppy about it last year, very funny, you just don't win against the people who fly the plane. Turned into the equivalent of the "when you are under my roof" type arguements we have with out parents.

Most airlines ban anything using lasers for the entire flicht while others just say not during take off or landing.