Long-term satisfaction with your mp3 player

[deeyo]

I almost bought a 30gb ipod video, but then the battery in my brother's (5th gen) just died after a little less then a year. A lot of my friends who have ipods also had something mess up (usually battery) after a year or two - which makes me a little worried about getting an ipod.

What are your experiences with the ipod or another mp3 player in terms of reliability and also warranty/customer service?

 

[venkman]

I bought a 1GB Sandisk player about 2 and a half years ago and it's still going strong after a ton of use while my ipod shuffle, which is roughly the same age, took a crap long back.

 

[MazerRackham]

My iPod nano 8GB was great, until I lost it last week! I want to buy another but might just get a 30gb iPod instead.

I was hoping new iPods would be announced today, but alas it was only iMacs and crap.

EDIT:!!! I found it! OMG I thought it was gone for sure...

It pays to search through your jeans pockets before you wash them, especially when you can't find your mp3 player.

 

[imported_thefonz]

my 30 gig 5th gen is still going strong after a year and a half. Thats with almost daily charging and use. The length of the charge has diminished by about 4-5 hours though, so instead of 12 hours of music I get maybe 7-8. This is common among all ipods, cell phones, etc. The battery can not hold a charge as long as when it was brand new.

Overall I'm very satisfied with my purchase.

 

[Raduque]

I'm happy with my Zune. I used it "normally" for about 5 months, but now it lives in my truck.

 

[deeyo]

mm yea.. the zune seems good for me. I like the look and it was nice to play with at the store. Plus i have a lot of WMA's that i dont really want to convert. But any ideas when new models of all these things come out?? =o


btw: i've heard that to prolong your battery's efficiency (so it will maintain original battery life) you should always run the battery dry before fully recharging it.

 

[dlerious]

I still have a working Rio Karma and a Creative Zen Xtra. I've been looking to buy another, but haven't found anything I like yet. I need replaceable batteries - I'm not throwing out a 300 to 400 dollar player because the battery won't hold a charge. I want 100GB or more of storage, line-level out, and support for FLAC. I'd like gapless playback. I don't care about video. voice recording would be nice.

 

[DaWhim]

1gb Creative Nano Zen. It serves me very well. I use my mp3 player only for audiobooks. It comes with a decent pair of earbud, armband and belt-clip.

 

[deeyo]

Originally posted by: dlerious
I still have a working Rio Karma and a Creative Zen Xtra. I've been looking to buy another, but haven't found anything I like yet. I need replaceable batteries - I'm not throwing out a 300 to 400 dollar player because the battery won't hold a charge. I want 100GB or more of storage, line-level out, and support for FLAC. I'd like gapless playback. I don't care about video. voice recording would be nice.

yo, i dont think anything like that exists... There is an older player tho, the Cowon X5L that's a little bulky and a bit ugly, but has 60GB, FLAC support, high-quality recording, and 30hr battery. I think it also has an open-source firmware available that supports gapless.



also, i'm looking for something with at least 20gb, though i may settle for a flash player if it's cheap and good, and wait for the next wave of hard drive players to roll out.

 

[Megatomic]

I have a Sansa e260 and I absolutely love it. The only mp3 player I'd move up to from it is a Sansa e280.

 

[fredhe12]

My 2nd gen Nano is awesome! Sometimes I wish for video but not really. Nano rocks!

Looking for some good wireless headphones though.

 

[zig3695]

heh... 3rd gen 40gb ipod that i bought used off ebay three years ago for $200 died after one year, but i threw in a new harddrive and its been working great ever since. and i use it for construction, so it goes from hot to cold weather all day and year long. ipods are rugged as hell if you dont count the mechanical harddrives.

 

[ChaoZ]

Have a 2gb Sansa e200 for a year now. Still works great and have no intention to switching to anything else anytime soon.

 

[Allio]

Had my Zen Vision M for about 16 months now, still holds a charge like the day I got it and other than a few little hiccups has worked flawlessly. To this day I still can't get over how nice the screen looks...

If I had to get a new one I'd get the 60GB version. Neither the iPod or Zune offer anything over the Zen despite coming out after it. There's STILL nothing else compact that I can just drag and drop xvid/divx files onto and then watch without conversion.

 

[Newfie]

2gb iPod nano. It serves me great, but alas I underestimated my growing taste in music. I'm thinking of getting a bigger model when the new iPods come out.

 

[tatteredpotato]

Originally posted by: Allio
Had my Zen Vision M for about 16 months now, still holds a charge like the day I got it and other than a few little hiccups has worked flawlessly. To this day I still can't get over how nice the screen looks...

If I had to get a new one I'd get the 60GB version. Neither the iPod or Zune offer anything over the Zen despite coming out after it. There's STILL nothing else compact that I can just drag and drop xvid/divx files onto and then watch without conversion.

I really like the Zen, but when I use some of my friends, the UI feels sluggish. Sometimes it freezes and I find it annoying. I do like the codec support and drag and drop abilities.

 

[Allio]

Originally posted by: ObscureCaucasian
I really like the Zen, but when I use some of my friends, the UI feels sluggish. Sometimes it freezes and I find it annoying. I do like the codec support and drag and drop abilities.

True, that can be annoying sometimes. They improve the responsiveness with every firmware update though and these days it's really not much of a problem. Make sure they're updating the firmware if it still feels slow.

 

[Tarrant64]

I had a 1gb first gen nano. After a year and an expired warranty it died. It was paperweight so I was going to throw it away but a friend wanted it to mess with. I told him if he could fix it I'd pay for the parts he used and lunch.

Still working now. I want to upgrade or get a zune though. Probably a Zune, I just need a good external backup for my music.

 

[tdawg]

I have a Zen Vision:W that I've owned for about 6 months or more and a Sandisk Sansa e260 I've had for about 3 months. I bought my zen to replace my aged 10gb iPod cause I wanted something that would do video. The zen does video very nicely, but as far as music, I don't even have any on there any more. It kind of just sits around in a case collecting dust except when I'm traveling somewhere and want a portable video player (I can't emphasize how much I appreciate it's video capabilities, and the screen is gorgeous!).

The Sandisk is very nice and compact and has a MicroSD slot to expand storage. I use this almost daily.

 

[RaiderJ]

I have had a rough search for a new MP3 player. I currently have a Creative MuVo TX FM 512MB. I was looking for something that would hold more music. My requirement:

* Must support dragging & dropping
* Must support folder & file browsing
* Ideally have a built in USB port, or a non-proprietary cable
* Rechargeable battery via USB or standard battery (AAA, AA)

Basically, I'm looking for a thumbdrive that doubles as an MP3 player. What baffles me is how many players out there DON'T support drag & drop. I absolutely can't stand any of the media programs out there such as iTunes for all the syncing. I already have things organized on my hard drive, having to organize in some proprietary form for a music player is ridiculous.

The only player I've found that works for me is the one I currently have, but I'm considering an upgrade to a Creative v100 2GB. If it had a slot for a memory card, it would be perfect.

I've used the Sansa e270 for a bit, and it's pretty good. Doesn't allow me to sort by filename, but I get the feeling that is a feature I'm going to have to learn to live without at some point.

 

[digiram]

Still have my original 5gb 1st gen ipod from 2001/2 something like that.

HD is still going strong, but had to replae the battery two years ago. Overall...I'm quite satisfied with it.

Thinking about getting a nano, but wife has one and wtf am I going to do with this one. It still works and all.

 

[Takemaru]

My 20GB Zen touch is a little over 3 years old, still going strong and still has the best quality sound of any MP3 player i've ever laid my hands on, it still gets about 18 hours out of a charge as opposed to the 23-24 it used to even after daily use for so long, but since i only used to need a charge about once every 3-4 days i guess the battery has had a easier life than most. Monochrome is retro shiek, who needs a fancy battery devouring color screen, unless you have video playback it's a just a pointless luxury that costs you in the long run after all those frequent charges IMO.

 

[ChaoZ]

Originally posted by: digiram
Still have my original 5gb 1st gen ipod from 2001/2 something like that.

HD is still going strong, but had to replae the battery two years ago. Overall...I'm quite satisfied with it.

Thinking about getting a nano, but wife has one and wtf am I going to do with this one. It still works and all.

Retire it. That thing is f'ing huge.

 

[krunchykrome]

I got the iRiver H10 5 gig about 2 years ago. At that time, it was a hot little mp3 player. now it's outdated and considered "vintage" by recent standards.

 

[deeyo]

mm i just played with the Samsung T9 at a store, and i completely love the interface and screen. However, it only comes in 2GB and 4GB is a bit sluggish.

but i think its so slick and intuitive my granma could use it! (she wants an mp3 player too =p)