Which mp3 players are good? Any good review sites?

[Aihyah]

Just wondering because i'm in the market again. Had a rio pnp 300 a while back and that sucked. Well the sound quality sucked like it didn't have the power to drive my earbuds ah well, smart media expansion possibility would be nice, cheapest memory out there right?

 

[Joony]

ill take it off your hands well, get one of those rios...USB transfer!

 

[Aihyah]

well i don't have the pnp300 anymore i had 2 actually i got em when they 1st came out.. 2-2.5 years ago? 32mb.. i sold em cuz i was ticked off at the sound quality. Was hoping that after a while flash memory prices would drop, boy was i wrong flash mem isn't cheap as i'd like, but cheap enough i guess now, so time to buy another player

and yea, usb would be nice, firewire would be nicer the pnp's were parralel port..gag!

 

[Aihyah]

need some good reviews, read that the new diamond rios no longer sound like garbage, but they seem to use proprietary memory now.. which really blows

 

[Bluga]

mp3 players sucks, i just got and Sony MZ-R900 MD recorder (all metallic case)and it rocks , with MDLP you can record up to 160 minutes of CD quality music and its blank disc is dirty cheap($2), the only down side is the recording time though. I'm goin to sell my mp3 player soon. Sony is going to release a NET MD soon, which will allow USB transfer.

More info

Features

-MDLP Long time stereo recording (up to 320 min. recording on an 80min disk)
-Includes Digital PC Link Kit - external D/A converter connects between your PC's USB port and the -MD recorder's digital input.: Compatible with any Jukebox/Player application to record all internet audio formats
-G-protection technology: combines three core technologies that move the MD laser pick-up in sync with the MD being played, which actually prevents many skips before they occur
-Personal Disc Memory remember s sound settings for 20 different discs
-"Name Bank" stores 600 most frequently used characters
-Sony's famous Jog Dial
-Redesigned LCD stick remote control
-"One Touch Disc Ejection"
-Digital text dubbing through "Joint Text" function (requires Sony's optional conector: RX-TXT1)
-7 step playback speed control
-Synchronized recording for digital, analog and mic
-Alarm Clock
-40/80/160 second anti-shock memory

 

[Aihyah]

i thought about minidisc, but can't deal with it. I want to transfer mp3s directly and quickly, i hate recording stuff real time. Minidisc would really be a nice format if they could use the thing to store mp3 data files, but it doesn't look like sony would do that. hell their mp3 players don't even play mp3, onyl their own format besides, i don't need compressed mp3 music to be recompressed into attrac minidisc format. Thats ick.

 

[smp]

Creative jukebox?

 

[Aihyah]

nope, a requirement is decently cheap, and light and small

 

[Konboy]

Well, beggers cant be choosers. You want a MP3 player that plays great, good quality, easy to load MPS, but are unwilling to pay for it. LMK if you find one..GL

 

[randomlinh]

I would go MD, but i think i'll hold off a bit cause i can't drop $300 on a player/recorder AND a digicam I'm shooting for a CF based mp3 player so i can double up the CF for camera use too. The NexII.. it has its problems, but so do lots of things

 

[mrgibbysworth]

rio 500. USB, smartmedia, cheap, light. I have no major complaints bout mine, except Diamond or Sonic Blue or whatever they wanna be called this week hasn't released a new firmware to support 128mb cards yet. Think i paid <$99 for the thing not long ago. People on ebay are selling them quite cheap. I even bought one for my mom. Sound quality is good with decent headphones (the set they come with is terrible)

 

[ZeroBurn]

i don't know if mp3 players will be migrating to CF anytime soon. isn't the format considerably larger then smartmedia ?

if anything, they're going propriortory, the rio 600, the iomegas. everyone's trying to get a jump on the competition with something smaller with more capacity.

the main difference between MD and mp3 i think is their targeted usage. i can bring my nomad iic with me on the slopes and easily change tracks and manipulate it even through my gloves, and it's small and light enough so that it'll take a beating and get away with some mere scratches, and _never_ skip on me. i'd rather not carry minidiscs with me up there either, nor when i'm running. mp3 players are definitely geared toward athletic and mobile usage, MDs annhillate the walkman market though (walking on campus, to the park, etc).

aihyah- have you thought about the nomad iic? i've been pointing this one out a lot it seems, you can get it from amazon for around $90 shipped, and a viking 128mb smartmedia for $75, coming to about $165 for a 160mb mp3 player. small, light, easy to manipulate, awesome sound quality, and _awesome_ amount of space, with the usb connectivity. if you want to carry around another 128mb smartmedia that's all well and good, too.

 

[randomlinh]

there's a very small CF based mp3 player, fits in the palm of your hand, called the Diva. I don't have a link off hand, but if you want it, pm me. I haven't heard too much about it, very basic LCD (or none, they have a few options). However, since the LCD doesn't have titles (not yet, supposed firmware may change that), I like the nexII better. They are unfortunately both lacking on things like a resume feature (player resets to begining if you turn it off). And random play isn't quite there yet. I'd go for the $200 archos but HD not good for active use, i would prolly crash it

 

[So]

How about an MP3 Cd player? I have the Rio Volt, and really like it. The navigation is good, so that isnt really a problem, and you can't beat the price of CDR media. The sound quality seems very good to me (but I'm not an audiophile, so I suggest you check it out in a store)

 

[ZeroBurn]

they're awesome, but not quite as portable either. some of my friends use them in their cars, i'm going to be going for an mp3 deck though. it all depends on what you need it for, i use it for snowboarding and running at night, so i need the smallest and lightest, mp3 for me. i couldn't even imagine running a cd player down the slopes, too large, bulky, harder to control, and presumably would skip like mad.

 

[Dragoon42]

Try looking up the Nex II on mp3.com. It takes CF and IBM microdrive, the player itself without any memory is only $100

 

[randomlinh]

hrmm, wonder how much improved teh anti-skip on those MD's then.... eh, still i think i'll go w/ my plan untill i have a bit more cash to spend

 

[Aihyah]

ah kewl

konboy,

i will pay for things i deem good. I bought 2 rio pnp300's when they came out u know


zeroburn,

i will look into the nomad, seems to be a good deal I like to keep my mp3s vrb ~160 average file size, so memory expansion is a good thing and yea smart media is probably what i meant, its the cheapest per m/b out right now right?

i will be using it for exercise and other stuff, so no rio volt for me



really wish they'd store data on those md's... seems to be no technical reason why they couldn't. probably all legal

 

[ZeroBurn]

Aihyah - i have over 20 songs encoded in vbr 192 stored on here, and still haven't filled the rest yet

 

[CattyKathy]

I just started working at this place right now, their site sucks, but they're in the process of updating it so....here not too bad, i believe

 

[ZeroBurn]

interesting design on that player, i may have to find somehwere to test drive it

 

[JackBurton]

How about THIS bad boy! It is pretty damn small and only uses ONE rechargable AAA battery. It's also 64MB.

 

[randomlinh]

they do have data MD's.. for the MD DV cams.... or the ONE that sony has out.. i dunno if you can even buy it here yet. like 10min of mpeg2 per disc. The problem is cost (well, sony pretty much controls it there..)

There WAS a MD data drive for the pc... crutchfield had it LONG ago... but i can't find it anymore (they only sell the drive that connects to the pc.. but all it is is a deck w/ keyboard support and a usb connection).


edit: DUDE, the panasonic thing is $400 there!!! WTF are they smokin!!!

 

[yaethom]

I'd say the rio 500's are the best way to go for your money and expanding your memory. They only support up to 64MB, and i doubt they are ever gonna support the 128 MB, only cuz they want to sell their rio 600's and 800's. But 64MB internal and 64Mb external is fine. Not to mention the battery life on one AA battery is pretty good, it pulls one to around 9-10 hours. (not the 12 hours listed in descriptions). Better than others, especially small ones like the sony one. The Sony one is 4 hours per charge of its rechargeable battery.

 

[Aihyah]

edit: DUDE, the panasonic thing is $400 there!!! WTF are they smokin!!!

yea i checked that thing out, i think it doesn't have internal memory, only uses panasonic proprietary memory which is not kewl at all. thing isn't that small either. panasonic needs to try again.