Is it best to save and wait for a hardrive mp3 player?

[johnnr892]

Hi, after recently getting a refund on my defective zen micro, I have been thinking long and hard and researching over possible replacements. I have assessed all of them and they all have plus points and minus points: (P.S i found that i may run out of room on a 5gb mp3 player because i only had 700mb left on my micro after 2 days)
-The ipod mini 6gb is a tad expensive @£165 and doesn't offer the best sound quality
-The rio karma is bulky and is liable to breaking because of questionable build quality and hardrives.
-the rio carbon doesn't support ogg vorbis and maybe has too little capacity for my liking
-the iaudio would be a good choice but it is a bit pricey@£200 and also i don't like the small in line remote screen
-Zen touch is very big and heavy

So what should i do, should I wait or take the plunge with any of these, or do you have any suggestions. Thanks, John.

[Agent]

Had chance to play with a Iriver H320 the other day. Bit bigger than most players, but it rocks !

Will be getting one before i go on holiday !

[johnnr892]

So you woul say wait and save up about £200 and then buy rather than only spending £145 or whatever?

[ajbrun]

You said about the iAudio M3 being a bit pricey at £200. I've just got one from www.dabs.com for £186 inc P&P. I'm sure this is the cheapest price anywhere, and is much cheaper than your £200. When I last looked though, there weren't many left at dabs (15 when I got mine last week), and since the price might change, you'd best get it quick.

[5lab]

what about a micro zen, or one of their similar small hdd-based players? you can get 4-6 gig in a tiny package

[johnnr892]

because my last mp3 player which i just returned qas a zen micro and after doing some research, there seems to be a serious flaw with the headphone jack. I now know of people who have had 3 or 4 of these and experienced the same problem and i wouldn't want to run that risk.

edit:what has everyelse found the inline remote on their m3 like, it it big enough and clear enough. what about navigation and UI??

[ajbrun]

Yeah - I think the remote is very good. It's just the right size - not too big, and not too small. You can control the whole system from the remote, which is a very good idea. I hardley touch the main unit at all now. The only things I haven't liked about the whole package are the headphones (see recent thread), but they have nothing to do with the MP3 player, which I think is great .

[jimborae]

Another vote for the Iaudio M3, good sound quality, great support, great size, looks & build quality. Yes the remote can be a bit fiddly till you get used to it but after that its all good. The only real downside is that the FM radio reception is poor & inline recording isn't to great either but as I don't use either of these features it doesn't bother me.

[joshwa]

What about the Archos XS200 - 20gb very compact, and around £150 (it's around the same size as a mini ipod)

[Yohji]

Get an iRiver. I have an iHP140, fantastic beast of a hdd player. H340's are great too, essentially the same, but you can watch videos!

[johnnr892]

so you think the 1audio navigation is ok, what about how you scroll through the artists and albums, all other mp3 player have ingenius designs like clickweheel, touchpad and scroll whell, what does the cowan use?

[ajbrun]

Well, it's OK once you get used to it. The instructions aren't hugely clear, but once you've got used to it, it's fine. Basically, you only use the volume control and the song skip click wheel things to navigate. It's not hard, just someone who's never used it before wouldn't have a clue. Press down volume to go to song selection, or hold it for 2ish seconds to go to options. Apart from that, it's easy.

http://www.hwzone.co.il/reviewseng.p...iaudio_m3l-eng

That review really helped me decide what to get. Read through that and if you have any other questions, I'll be happy to answer .

[Trippledence]

Had chance to play with a Iriver H320 the other day. Bit bigger than most players, but it rocks !

Will be getting one before i go on holiday !

I got a H340 the other day after my cd player went wrong. £110 back from the insurence people. And £120 of my own dough. Well worth it. The sound quality is exelent through my pannasonic headphones, way better than my mates Ipods and Zen's palying the same rip. I almost didnt spend the money. But now it was well worth it. Plays vid's too! Porn o'clock!

In inbuild radio is fine as long as your not in a weak reseption arear. And the Inbuilt mic is very good for what it is, encodes recordings strait to Mp3. Its perfect!

[johnnr892]

The H340 seems to me to be very big and clunky, i'm not too bothered about videos becasue they seem a bit like a gimmik to me. The main concern of mine with the M3 is the speed of scrolling, is it pro logic, what i mean is when you hold down the scroll button does it get faster the longer you hold becasue otherwise it could make scrolling slow and labourious...

[ajbrun]

WOW - I've just tried it (1st time actually as I don't have many MP3's yet), and it can scroll super fast if you hold it down, so yes - it scrolls.

[johnnr892]

I just think i cannot justify the price of £190+ over a rio karma which does much the same for £130 including postage...