What mp3 player to get?

[myth]

Of course, having never owned either of these players, my view comes solely from these reviews/comparisons, and I think you'd benefit from finding some first-hand reviews of the iRiver like the one myth posted above

Also if you have any questions I'd be glad to help! I do own one after all!

[Howard]

Also if you have any questions I'd be glad to help! I do own one after all!

Ditto me... I have a Zen Xtra 60GB

[directhex]

my rio karma should arrive tomorrow

[Kezzer]

Ditto me... I have a Zen Xtra 60GB

They're too big

/me strokes MuVo2

[Howard]

I have more than 4GB of music though. Lol.

[silent ben]

Ipod all the way, best purchase i ever made, and much easier to use than any other player i've tried.

Ben

[Jonny M]

Rio Karma

[neonplanet40]

At the min i think im going for that i-river. it sounds like a great player and the remote looks excellet to. can anyone give me a reason why i should pick the rio karma over the i-river? or would i be fine in getting it?

PyRo

thanx for all ur replys guys its very much appreciated

[BenW]

Nobody mentioned the new sony

20GB, quite small but there is a downside, you have to convert your tracks into ATRAC but that can be done overnight

[myth]

Well I can tell you all the things I dont like about my iHP 120!

• no random play list creation on the fly
• case is too big
• battery only lasts 16 hours
• there is a 1 second delay betwen songs
• the ear buds suck
• no dock

Things I like!

• broad range of file suport
• firm ware upgradeable
• neat remote
• many types of audio efects! * I love this the most
• can be defragmented with O&O
• has optical in/out

Also take a look at this.. I dont know anything about it other then its suposed to be great...

http://www.audio.philips.com/mp3-player.html

[Aaron]

Nobody mentioned the new sony

20GB, quite small but there is a downside, you have to convert your tracks into ATRAC but that can be done overnight

Whilst I'm sure the hardware side is very pretty, it is totally flawed as a product as it uses Sony's god-awful Sonic Stage software though.

This means:

• Stupidly restrictive DRM
• Having to keep two copies of your music - one in mp3/aac/some other sensible format and one in ATRAC
• Having to use the incredibly unstable mp3 -> ATRAC convertor which complains about tracks not being in the right format when they worked perfectly well only a few weeks ago

Sony won't go very far in the mp3 player market until they sort out their software and forget that they're a record company too. Their new player is too little, too late.


Personally, I've got an iPod. Yes, it's a fashion accessory but that's part of the reason that I bought it - it looks gorgeous. I know these things are very subjective but its designer didn't win the title of "most influential Briton of 2003" for no reason. I also like the size of the player, the UI and the huge range of accessories for it.

My friend bought an iRiver at the weekend and it does look good though, if a little large and ugly.

[directhex]

At the min i think im going for that i-river. it sounds like a great player and the remote looks excellet to. can anyone give me a reason why i should pick the rio karma over the i-river? or would i be fine in getting it?

PyRo

thanx for all ur replys guys its very much appreciated

because it doesn't suffer from any of the following:

Well I can tell you all the things I dont like about my iHP 120!

• no random play list creation on the fly (rio dj, something like that)
• there is a 1 second delay betwen songs (entirely gapless)
• the ear buds suck (sennheiser)
• no dock (big sturdy dock with ethernet on it)

but it does have the following:

Things I like!

• broad range of file suport (wma, mp3, vorbis, flac)
• firm ware upgradeable (self explanitory)

[starbuck]

just make sure you get one with a replaceable battery. IPods do not have an easy battery to replace and I've heard you have to pay almost half the price of a new ipod once the battery dies. Anything from creative(like new zen touch- ipod in looks but much better sound and replaceable batteries normally about £30 - not sure though if battery in zen touch is replaceable though) is good. Sound always better than ipod and white earphones on ipod make you noticed by people who may want to relieve you of your player.

Multi sound formats(ie ogg, wma, mp3, vorbis, flac etc) only useful if you have all of those types of files(I stick with MP3 and wma). Just make sure it can at least play mp3 and wma.

Exactly what do you want the player for? I have 2, creative jukebox 3(like a mini cd player with 40gb drive but drives are replaceable with larger) which I use at home plugged into stereo or the creative playdock(portable sound system which sounds awesome and you can take anywhere). I also use this at work plugged into mini speakers. Best I've found for creating playlists on the fly. I also have a muvo2 4gb for when I'm out and about which I can stick in my pocket easily.

If you are only going to use it when out and about, wouldn't worry too much about mem size as how much music can you listen to when out for a few hours? Larger drives have less battery time and take longer to find what you want. You can always load diff stuff easily and quickly before you go out.

[DaftpuNk]

4gig is NOT a good amount of music. the muvo2 costs what, £150ish and you get 4gig...thats 10% of my music collection. A 4th gen ipod isnt that much bigger [tho its noticeably heavier] and has 5x the storage space for an extra £50

same goes for the i-river and rio ones, all of them beat the muvo2. imho the muvo2 and ipod mini are both pointless players that serve just as fashion accessories - more so than a 'normal' ipod

I suggest in future you read my entire post and see that the statement about 4GB being a good size is in direct relation to the characteristics I said the player should have, i.e. be very small and portable at the same time as having great sound quality.

4GB is also a very small percentage of my collection, but in what case are you going to need to carry more than that around with you? I have owned a larger model Creative Labs Jukebox Zen before and it was kinda nice to carry everything with me, but it's just not important in my eyes as i'm only ever listening to a couple of albums at a time.

As for continuing opinions of the ipod's quality, simply put, you're misguided.

[Tom]

I suggest in future you read my entire post and see that the statement about 4GB being a good size is in direct relation to the characteristics I said the player should have, i.e. be very small and portable at the same time as having great sound quality.

4GB is also a very small percentage of my collection, but in what case are you going to need to carry more than that around with you? I have owned a larger model Creative Labs Jukebox Zen before and it was kinda nice to carry everything with me, but it's just not important in my eyes as i'm only ever listening to a couple of albums at a time.

As for continuing opinions of the ipod's quality, simply put, you're misguided.

i agree with daftpunk entirely, i think the reduced form factor most definitely outways the extra space. Its not all my music no, but its a damn good chunk of what I listen to at any one time

[arsen]

ipod > fashion, sound isnt exactly great, few mates have them, all have them because they are "cool" and look good etc,
rather have smaller, lighter, decent software(not sure if they use the old musicmatch bast to move tracks?).. ie just a plug n play removeable storage device, i used to like the iriver myself, muvo2 looks nice, wish sony got their acts together, the old flash card players were great, then they randomly stopped making the best player on the market, and now come out with ATRAC?! nice one sony