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Diamond Rio 600 MP3 player for $129 shipped

E

ETLA

Golden Member
This is the best from Diamond, Staples has it for $169it's nice and they have it at Staples use the $40 off $150 code get it down to $129 free shipping! click here[/L]
 
Ah! I was just going to post this!

Be sure to goto techbargains (dot) com for the 40 off 150.

edit/ Nice find, btw!
 
wow, I just run for it and buy one for my gf.
but anyone knows about the expandable ram? any good deal?
 
MP3 players are cool for a while, but it's not economical. For it to be useful, you need at least 64 if not 96 meg of storage. It adds up. I finally got rid of my Nomad II and went with a MD player. Still 129 is a good deal for a MP3 player.
 
I think having 64 mb actually makes them useful. I had a rio 300(I think) with only 32mb, it was pretty cool. I got it on a VA deal for only $30 or something like that. It was nice to have and the price was unbeatable. I gave it to a friend and really miss having it. Now I regret giving it away and am interested in replacing it with either a mp3 or md player. I am waiting for the prices to drop until I decide what I want to invest in. I am definatly leaning toward and mp3 because of how easy it is to get music amd transfer it. Aren't the transfers on md's real time while mp3 are much faster on usb? And getting memory expansions for the mp3 players ae expensive while md's are cheap...hmmm
 

I've found that a lot of the MP3 vs. MD decision depends on how you use
your player.

I have a Sharp 702MK MD (a recorder/player). It has a 10 sec
skip protection, sounds great, has a bunch of great options and
I've loved using it. It worked really well for me for quite a while.
One thing I really liked was that MD blanks are so cheap ($10 for
a 5 pack).

However, after using it over the course of 9 months of marathon training,
it began to show some wear. I began to find it difficult to position
so it wouldn't skip. What I used to do was put it in a belt pack
and move it so it was up against my hip. It provided enough stability
so that it wouldn't skip for most, if not all of my runs.

The real problem with this was that I couldn't get it to fit in
my water pack. I would end up having to carry it to keep it from
skipping. This is fine for short runs of 6 to 7 miles but for the
longer runs of 18 miles or so, it would get tiresome to carry.

The other limitation I found was that while it was great to carry
2 or 3 MDs with me, I found it a bit limiting to have to stop,
take the player out of the plastic bag (to protect it from moisture)
pop out the MD, swap and put it all back together. Strangely,
I never used it during the marathon (I either never needed to
or I was just being stubborn). After the marathon, I started
to get a UTOC Error (which means it can't read the disk) and
had to send it back for repairs. I think all the jostling finally
began to affect it.

Last week I got a Nomad II MG for about $180. The great price
was, in part, due to a Hot Deal I found here last year: Egghead
was selling IBM ViaVoice for $25 and Best Buy had it for $129.
I bought a copy, returned it to Best Buy for a credit and used
that to get the Nomad II MG.

So far, I love the thing. It's tiny, unskippable, easy to use
and has FM radio reception. I used it in a 7 mile race this
weekend and it was small enough to fit in my water pack (although
I didn't use my water pack after all and just stuffed it in
my pocket). It sounds great and, by changing my MP3s to 128kbs
WMAs, I was able to get 19 songs (about 1 hour 10 minutes) of
music on to the thing. About the same as the MD however,
if I got bored of the music on there, I could always switch
over to FM radio.

I've since turned my MD player over to my wife who runs shorter
distances.

So MD vs MP3 depends on your application, IMHO. That being
said, here's some notes:

1. MD players don't come with FM radios built in. They most likely
never will. Some MP3 players do.

2. MP3 players can use USB to transfer files. MD players do it in
real time. I didn't mind this but did find that, depending on the
playing software I was using, it sometimes wouldn't put enough of
a delay in to make seperate tracks and I would end up with 19 tracks
melded into one big track on the MD.

3. MD players can fit 74 minutes of music at any bit rate. MP3 players
can fit less music at higher bit rates. I actually downgrade my
MP3 files to 96kb WMA files to fit more. I can't hear the difference
in sound and it makes a difference in size. Sound fidelity isn't that
important to me when I'm huffing and puffing down the road with cars
whipping by me.

4. The Nomad II MG doesn't come with a remote control. Somewhat
of a detriment but not too bad. The Nomad II does. All MD players
do.

5. There is a new format, MDLP, that promises longer play times
on a single disc. Battery life is also getting really good with
40+ hours of playback on single charges for MD. More than enough
for most people, I would think.

6. Depending on the model, you have to use a base for transferring
songs to the MP3 player (as is the case with the Nomad II MG). MDs
you can use a mini-mini plug from any output source.

As far as the Rio 600: the price was attractive. The 32MB was not.
Diamond keeps saying that 64MB and 372 MB upgrades are coming soon
but when and how much has never been announced. They also say they
will have a remote with an FM radio built in but that is also "coming
soon".

So, for sound fidelty, cheap media and ease of use, I'd go MD.
For a cross country flight, I'd rather have my MD with some extra
batteries and 8 or 9 MDs.

For size (dimensions), guaranteed anti-skipping, and also, ease
of use, I'd go MP3. For heavy physical activity, I'd rather
have my MP3. (Also, I regularly burn my MP3s to CDs. That way
I can easily carry the MP3s with me to refresh my playlist
on the MG).

It all depends on your application.


Sorry for the long winded response.
 
Wow, Zone,

such a long reply! anyway, welcome!

I have bought rio mp3 600 for my gf. but 32mb is a bit annoying!
I have a question, what means 40 sec shock of MD, is that same as CD player?

from zone 's description, MD acturally could provide enough anti-skip because I never try to run more than 5 miles. Zone, you r great!

What is the best mp3 player in the market? Nomad?

 
Yes. 40 seconds of shock protection is the same as most CD players.
I tried a MD player (not player/recorder) that had 40 second
skip and ran into skipping when I used it with my water pack.

One thing I did notice with my MD devices is that alignment matters.
For instance, the Sharp MS-702MK has a slot-load mechanism (instead of a clamshell mechanism that is prevalent today). It makes it slightly bigger but it's easier to change MDs.

I found that when running, I had to have the orientation of the slot to be either up or down. If I held it so the slot was on the side (oriented right or left), it would skip if I had it in a pack or if I had it my hand. Orient it so the slot is up and it didn't skip. I found the same to be true with the Sony player I tried.

I would check out Minidisc.org for more information on players and recorders. Lots of great info there. Right now, I'd recommend the Sony MZR70. It's got 40 seconds of shock protection, can run on a rechargeable or regular AA, and is about the size of 2 minidiscs (although it bulges on one side with the AA battery).

You can also do what I'm planning on doing with the Nomad II MG: cut a couple of holes in the case and loop velcro through it. Then you can velcro it to your arm. Some folks have reported having luck preventing skipping with this since it's not bouncing as much as when it's attached to your back.

As far as best MP3 player, I'm not sure.

If your requirements are just storage, the Rio 500 has gotten great reviews.
If you want FM radio reception, I like the Nomad II (but it's limited to 64 MB since it has no built in memory) or the Nomad II MG. The Sensory Science Rave MP2200 has gotten some good reviews as well.

Since this is a hot deals site 😀 you can get the Nomad II for about $200 by doing this:

Go to Office Express where they have it for $233. Then go to Staples and look for the Nomad on their site where they have it for $279. Price match and use one of the many $40 off coupons and you can get it for about $193 + $8 for shipping. Not a bad deal.
 
Just find 64mb of Flash Memory in EQfooting and take off $50 and you got yourself a 64mb card and sell your 32mb to make some extra or keep it for 96 total. =)
 
EQfooting = equalfooting

Can anyone answer my question if these have a built in radio function? And do they accept the IBM microdrives like the RCA Lyra's do?
 
Well, you weren't too specific about which 'these' you were talking about. So, in a nutshell:

MD players - none of them have built in radios as I stated before. I believe I read in a group somewhere that there is some theory that it causes interference with recording and loss of fidelity (sounds like a bunch of c**p to me).

MP3 Players - As far as I know, models that come with built in radios are the Nomad II, the Nomad II MG and the Sensoryscience Rave MP2200 (price ranges from $200 to $300 depending on model and all can come with 64MB of memory).

The only devices that accept anything other than flash, I believe are the new Iomega MP3 player that accepts 40 MB Click disks and there is the Sensoryscience Rave MP2300 that also accepts click disks.

The Lyra is the only one that I know of that would accept microdrives from IBM.

As for your earlier question "how is this thing ANY better than the 500", IMHO, it's not. It has less memory and a propietary memory upgrade path, i.e., the manufacture of the snap on backpack memory modules is going to be Diamond and youy are stuck with whatever price they give.
 
well I have a Nomad2, mp3 players are boring after I got my burner, burn everything away even when I don't have to hahaha~lol but honestly, it is up to your preferences, for me, it "MUST" also look good no matter what kind of electronics I am buying...haha, I can't stand something that is top of the line but ugly....
 
There are also those new MP3 players that use the Click! disks. At $10 per disk I think it worthwhile. But until the prices come down on those I think I'll stick to my Minidisc player (I don't do muck jogging just computer work in a busy enviroment).
 
mp3 players are nice additions too, I haven't try one, but thinking of buying one of the mp3 CD player that can play VCD and DVD which I found a week ago.. makes it portable DVD player
 
Don't you need to buy these external memeory packs from Diamond?
There's nothing mentioned about any other way of expanding the memory.
I think that's the catch.
 
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