Portable MP3 players?

dahamsta

Any recommendations? The Intel one seems to get great reviews, but is there anything else? Price around the Intel one I think, any more would be a waste IMHO.

Cheers,
adam

OSiriS

There seem to be a growing number of them around, including a few diskman mp3 players, but what I would like to see would be mini-disc versions. Anyone know if they exist yet?

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.dNC.OSiriS
url="http://www.hatstand.cx"]HAT[/urlOSiriS
http://clans.quake.ie/osiris
Frag-Net.org

seamus

Creative Labs made one, only a few short months ago, when MP3 players were the domain of rich kids and yuppies, and it seems to have disappeared.
Anyway I would go for that one. Anyone who knows Creative's stuff knows their quality, and get this - it has 3gig(!), yes you read that right, of storage capacity, big enough for anyones collection of beatles albums. Tis a tad large and heavy though for your average jogging companion, but would be grand, in de car, bus, or bike.
I know it was £300ish, but havent seen sight nor sound of it in a while. Check it out.

chernobyl

Ive got a DAP Jukebox.
6GB, aka 150Hours of music.
many flaws but the pros outway the cons.
its also a storage device aswell as mp3 player.

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Ashley Lyn

Ashley Lyn Cafagna

Balfa

there are millions of mp3 players now... just look at http://hardware.mp3.com for an enormous list.

Osiris, there won't be minidisc mp3 players, because it kinda defeats the purpose. Both use compression, so you'll be able to fit pretty much the same amount of music onto a minidisc if you use mp3s. therefore obviously you may as well just record it directly on using the standard minidisc compression format.

I personally think manufacturers have overlooked discman mp3 players. they may be physically bigger than solid state memory devices, but before mp3 players and minidisc players were commonplace, no one complained cos their discman was too big :P and at about £1.50 per Megabyte, solid state memory costs almost 4000 times as much as CDs.

So yeah, as soon as someone (preferably panasonic) finally decides to make a decent cd/mp3 player, then finally i can take my mp3s on the road

dahamsta

Thanks to everyone so far. FYI though, this is actually for jogging, or rather walking, so the smaller and lighter the better. Capacity doesn't matter all that much either, just an hour or two is fine for me, I'll be back to the rig or the car by that time. I should also have stated that I'm well aware there's loads of 'em out there - there's about fifteen on Amazon alone - I'm just looking for recommendations.

adam

chernobyl

got for a RIO 500 then.
very small, only a couple of grams and about 20HR battery life on a single AA battery.
Mini Disc is great but nothing compared to mp3.
sure solid state memory costs, but it outperforms mini disc.

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Ashley Lyn

Ashley Lyn Cafagna

_CreeD_

Balfa there are already lots of quality CD-MP3 players out there. I picked up a Philips Expanium at the beginning of the year, very nice piece of kit.
Minidisk is handier for short trips/portability/joggin etc. but a CD-MP3 player is much better for long hauls.

Ping Chow Chi

I brought two CD-MP3 players - first one I broke and the second one - the second one from 'Game' gave such poor sound quality I had to take back (plus if someone coughed in the neighbouring city the player would jump)

I have a sexy Mini Disc play on order at the moment - it even has a USB-to-digital lead for it


http://www.superfi.co.uk/images/mzr700pcmeduse.jpg

[This message has been edited by Ping Chow Chi (edited 05-09-2001).]

OSiriS

HMM, well balfa reading the specs of the minidisc players availavle these days, an 80 min dic gives you .. you guessed it 80 mins play back. Some of the sony players allow for 4 times compression. MP3s are 12 times compression which means still 3 times more music that the present premium mini-disc players. plz correct me if I am wrong and point me towards a mini-disc player with good compression.

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.dNC.OSiriS
url="http://www.hatstand.cx"]HAT[/urlOSiriS
http://clans.quake.ie/osiris
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_CreeD_

Osiris Mindisks also use lossy compression, ATRAC as it's known.
You will get less songs onto a 64mb solid state MP3 player than a normal 72 min. minidisk. then double that when using 2xLongplay Atrac, which is meant to be practically indistinguishable from the original if you use a digital link for the recording (On a portable anyway, you'd notice the dif on a HiFi).
Solid state MP3 players just aren't worth it imho. Even now it's coming down in price the memory is still ludicrously expensive compared to Minidisks or CDR's. If you do want to get one though make sure it is COMPACT-FLASH Type-2 compatible (Which should make it compatible with the IBM microdrives, which are now up to 1 Gb). this gives you the best of both worlds in that you can use the CF card for short hauls/exercise, and keep a microdrive full of MP3's for lomger periods.

[This message has been edited by _CreeD_ (edited 05-09-2001).]

strat

A few months ago i got a nice NAPA cd/mp3 player and its greit - the sound quality is A1 and i has nice features like directory searching and it recgarges its own baterys when plugged in, reads cd-rw's and its only about 130 quid check it out here .


[This message has been edited by StrataGIST (edited 05-09-2001).]

b20uvkft6m5xwg

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by chernobyl:
Ive got a DAP Jukebox.
6GB, aka 150Hours of music.
many flaws but the pros outway the cons.
its also a storage device aswell as mp3 player.

</font>

I was about to hand my VISA card over to the guy in compustore when I heard the specs but he knew absolutley nothing about the product
(what a suprise )
I've read alot about it but I didn't know that it can store data files as well. I knew about the Archos Jukebox & how that could store data other than mp3's.

Wots your overall impression Chernobyl??
I'm also waiting to see if any of them bring out a remote control so it would be handy if I plugged it into an amp before I buy

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80p.
SAVE CHIP !!

chernobyl

There were supposed to release the remote along time ago.
The thing even has the infra red port on the front.
Once you do a firmware upgrade the DAP can handle any files.

[pros]
.Lots of storage
.It uses recharable batteries and is an actual recharger itself.
.no worries about trach skipping as all music the current track is buffered in memory
.includes lots of cool music already stored on it, like mozart etc
.can act as recorder and encodes its recordings in mp3 format
.hardrive can be upgraded from 6GB to 30GB
.portable external battery source can be got, that gives 12hrs continuous play
.lots of buttons to press

[cons]
.too heavy, but using its pouch, you can still walk and run with it
.LCD screen is to small
.battery life varies from person to person, i can get 2 1/2, but some guys can get 6 hrs continuous play

Buy it, you wont regret it.

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Ashley Lyn

Ashley Lyn Cafagna

b20uvkft6m5xwg

I think your convincing me

Just another few quickies....

-How much is the firmware upgrade to handle all files?
-How much is a capacity upgrade-ie-10gb or 30gb?
-Where did you buy your one?

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80p.
SAVE CHIP !!

chernobyl

i bought mine from creatives site.
it was £490 to buy if from there, but im not aware of the price now, im sure it has dropped.

this is an excellent site for everything jukebox. NomadJukeBox.net

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Ashley Lyn

Ashley Lyn Cafagna

[This message has been edited by chernobyl (edited 06-09-2001).]

podgeen

i bought a mini disc with the usb connnection.. it has long play so you can fit 320 minutes on to a 80 minute disc. you setup a playlist in winamp connect the usbthing to pc and minidisc and let the mp3s play away. if you want to record 320 minutes of music to one disc it will take 320 minutes to do it as it records as it plays
honestly i dont notice any difference in the quality but it may be noticable on a hifi etc..

Milkman

I got a jukebox about 6 months ago, and its the best thing I've ever bought. If you're a bit of a muso, and hate trying to decide what tunes to bring with you.....this gizmo solves your problems.

Going away for the weekend, once there is speakers, you have 150 albums in your pocket.

The UI is a bit fiddly at first but its forgivable.

Whole heartidly recommend it.
Milkman.

b20uvkft6m5xwg

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by podgeen:
if you want to record 320 minutes of music to one disc it will take 320 minutes to do it as it records as it plays
honestly i dont notice any difference in the quality but it may be noticable on a hifi etc.. </font>

While there may be a difference in the quality of the stuff on a Nomad Jukebox, when comparing 320 mins to 6 gb- we're talking a few cds'in my hip pocket versus the crate in my office

I'm doing a nixer on Saturday( a bit out of the blue) so I may just funnell that into a Nomad Jukebox

I'll ebquire about the firmware upgrade & I did see on the creative site reference to there being a remote made availble( when released) to those who have already purchased one w/out

Thx Lads

[Sorry Adam, Hope we're not going too far off the Subject]

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80p.
SAVE CHIP !!

Superman

check out www.ebayireland.com

dragonkin

I bought a create Nomad II mg with 64megs built in. It cost $250 but the sound is great , it includes dicaphone, fm tuner and nice headphones. The usb port is really fast and the software seems pretty good so far. Only complaint is the price.. but if your willing to spend that much i highly recommend it. I had to ship it over.. but maybe there are suppliers in Ireland now

p

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by chernobyl:

this is an excellent site for everything jukebox. NomadJukeBox.net
</font>

I thought those jukboxes had terrible battery life.

My MD player had 73 hours playback.
mmmm nice.

Also, you can get a Mp3 player that uses those small CDRs as it's media. You can get them in virgin, and most CD burners can write to them. IMO that's on of the best solutions. Size of a minidisc, ease of use of mp3s.

Each CDR hold 180mb i think.


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- Kevin