Archos Gmini400 or Sony HD5

ButtermilkJack

Hey, my sister wants to get an MP3 player for her travels. Anyone have any experience of the above.

Links are here if you need 'em. Thanks.

Archos
Sony

Kevin_rc_ie

Sorry to be a little OT but how come you've decided on these two particualar players? You're familar with the iriver products, the creatives and the ipods?

ButtermilkJack

Yes, I have an iPod myself, have had for two years now and love it. Wouldn't get anything else myself tbh.

My sister suggested the Sony to me cos she liked the look of it and the fact that it has an amazing battery life, plus you can just remove the battery and replace when it dies (no need to explain the Apple battery situation I presume... )

A mate of mine just bought the Archos and raves about it all the time, colour screen ability to watch movies etc, etc..

As far as iRiver and Creative go, I don't really know too much. I heard iRiver aren't that good though?

Kevin_rc_ie

i've the iriver h340. i'm quite content with it.

it has a colour screen and the ability to play movies (at 10fps framerate) but not as good as the archos.

the creatives could be argued as being the best value cos they're so cheap.

yeah the sony with the 30gb, the 33 hour battery life, and i assume, the ability to play mp3s is a good deal.

i like the iriver cos you don't need to have any software installed on the pc, you can just drag and drop. so if you're travelling, buy a cd and want to play it on the mp3 player, you just have to worry about ripping it not about having your itunes or whatever the sony monstosity is.

ButtermilkJack

Drag and drop!! Never knew that about the iriver's. Sounds like a great added extra. Gonna check 'em out on their website now.

Ciaran500

Dopn't forget to look into the iAudio's http://eng.iaudio.com/

RicardoSmith

Over on these forums,
http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=22

there seems to be a problem with buttons cracking on the NW HD5 and some units are having a hiss problem. Theres also that SonicStage can be a pain sometimes. Sometimes it works fine, but when it goes bad its a nightmare.

The Archos, Cowon, iRiver, iPods all players in fact have good and bad points. None of them are identical functionality wise. So its hard to compare them. I think you have to have a must have list of features and see which ticks the boxes on your list. For me the Sony issues would rule it out for me. The issues with the iPods sound quality can be nullified though using the line out and an amp or a bassy set of quality earphones. I don't like the iTunes synch myself.

Creamy Goodness

don't get me starting on sony's software they give you, i had it for a mini disc and my god it was terrible, wouldn't go near it again even if i was paid