Portable music devices - which to get?

Pretender

Banned
Mar 14, 2000
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Alright, with the death of my cd player (it also fell victim to the ice tea w/ defective cap incident, and I believe the warrenty expired), I need to get something. I was thinking a CD-MP3 player (e.g. plays cds with mp3s burned on them in addition to normal audio cds), since they're getting kinda cheap and make sense considering I have a CD burner. My first choice was going to be the Tavarua Portable MP3-ROM/CD-ROM Audio Player, ok, the name is confusing, but it basically either plays normal cds or those with music in mp3 format, and is only $89. Problem is, it doesn't have any radio, but then again neither does the eXpanium, which costs about $200. The Nomad Jukebox is just overkill IMHO....I don't have 6GB of music, don't plan on ever having that much, don't plan on ever wanting to listen to all of it in any given year.

I'm not going to make a poll, because I'm not a lozer, err, loser, whatever, but any input would be helpful. :)
 

bigvince

Banned
Aug 25, 2000
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"MP3 files must be sampled at 44.1KHz, 32-196Kbps "

well it's cheap but that spec bothers me. how many of my mp3's are encoded at that bit rate? i don't know and i don't want to know...

 

kru

Platinum Member
Oct 24, 1999
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depends on what you intend to use it for. do you need something extremely portable for running, working out, etc? if so i'd recommend the rio 500. it has 64 megs internal memory and i added another 64 meg smartmedia card to bring it up to a whopping 128 megs. on the other hand if you'd rather have something that isn't as portable but can hold more tunes i'd recommend the mptrip cd/mp3 player from EasyBuy2000. i use it for road trips or when i'm at the office. 150-180 mp3s per disc x 12 discs = my whole mp3 collection. i probably shelled out a total of $270 for the rio 500 and the extra smartmedia and the mptrip ran me $123 shipped.
 

ratkil

Platinum Member
Jan 12, 2000
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That Mtrip looks suspiciously like the Geneca, which looks suspiciously like the Tavarua. I bought the Geneca from Computer Geeks. It has since stopped working and I recently sent it in for warranty replacement. It was skipping and then stopped working altogether. When it did work it worked rather well, I did not try this, but was told it would play sample rates over 190. The downsides are the case and buttons feel really cheap. But for $100 bucks..........I have both the Diamond Rio300 and the DLink 32 meg player, I think the CD player is much more convenient for using, but obviously much bigger.
 

unxpurg8d

Golden Member
Apr 7, 2000
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I'm with Killbat - minidisc!!!! Btw Killbat, over in the Hot Deals forum there's my thread on the Aiwa XRH66MD stereo for a great price...records 3 CDs to 3 MDs at a time. Got it yesterday and makes recording a LOT less bother. :)
 

Phalkon

Banned
Aug 20, 2000
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I got the Genica from Computer Geeks... it still works but I don't think its going to work for very much longer... ruggedness isn't this things forte.
 

Pretender

Banned
Mar 14, 2000
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<< ruggedness isn't this things forte >>

Well, that rules out the Genica for me. Any other suggestions? I remember reading about an mp3 cd player that also had radio, maybe I'm imagining but that'd be nice if anyone remembers it and has a link.
 

(Chanse)

Senior member
Oct 11, 1999
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The Genica is complete garbage. I bought one, mainli cause my options were pretty skimpy, either that, or a Rio with over priced memory. it works fine sometimes, sometimes, battery life seems to vary.
This is my next purchase, either from Iomega, or one of the many companies that will be using the same media.


Reasonably priced media?
 

ratkil

Platinum Member
Jan 12, 2000
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that Iomega thing looks pretty interesting. Hard to say what to buy now, this whole scene is going to change so much over the next few years....How much music does the minidisk player hold? I bought the Genica becuase the option of having just one cd with 150+ songs on it was just too cool :) Went on a business trip and took just one cd with a couple sets of batteries, that was kind of convenient.
 

unxpurg8d

Golden Member
Apr 7, 2000
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Minidiscs hold 74 minutes of music...I just record my CDs straight across - mainly 'cause I'm lazy. The cool part is that you can record over them again and again. They're small and tough, and the players can be found for around $80-90. Then all you have to do is go buy that nifty Aiwa stereo with the five minidisc carousel...hehe. Did I mention I LOVE mine?!??? You can record 3 CDs to 3 MDs at one button push. :) So for $260-280 total you get a nice home stereo AND a portable MD player. Plus the players are really small and light. Gee, I sound like a salesperson, huh? lol Sorry, just over-enthused with my new toy.