Mp3 Player

[BeauJangles]

I have an older mp3 player that just doesn't cut it anymore (a samsung yepp with 128 megs ram). I have two problems. First I want more space. Second I want faster transfers. The Ipod looks really appealing, but I don't want to shell out $450 for it (I would also need a firewire card with it). Any suggestions?

 

[corkyg]

There are basically three ways to get faster transfers. 1. USB 2.0 2. Firewire 3. A media reader for S/M, S/D S/S, C/F etc.

Last time I looked, I saw about 10 different kinds of MP3 players in the stores. The one I liked best was the Samsung Yepp 700H mainly because it used SmartMedia as an added insert and I have mucho of them on hand because of digicams.

I would rather use removable media so as not to locked into a humongous storage of stuff. Just personal preference. Ipod has nice features, but too much $$$ and I don't like white.

 

[nord1899]

There are essentially three types of players out there: FlashRAM, CD-R, and jukebox.

FlashRAM is like your Samsung Yepp. The largest in terms of storage I've seen is 128 internal plus 128 external. I have one of these, the MPIO DMG. Good chance there are larger ones out there now though.

CD-R is like a Rio Volt. Burn your MP3's to CD-R, pop them in, and off you go. The good part is that CD-R's are cheap, if you have a mp3 car deck they will work there, and it plays audio CD's. The bad part is the players can be kind of big (Volts are but the iRivers aren't), and 700 megs really isn't much when you have a large mp3 collection (I have 3000+ songs at over 20 gigs). These also don't tend to cost very much.

Jukebox is like the iPod. Transfer everything to a 5+ gig harddrive via USB or firewire. Pros are the large capacity for songs, form factor is pretty good too. Cons is basically the price. I have a Nomad 3 by Creative (20 gigs) and it kicks ass. The USB 1.1 is fine so long as you don't swap out more than an album or two at time. Loading it up the first time tacks a long time, but after that its easy.

So take your pick.