MP3 Player? iPod? Or Something Else?

[ReZourceman]

Claire and I are wanting an MP3 player, the last one we got was epic shyte, some Samsung bullshit, didnt work properly.

 

Im reluctant to get an iPod due to ;

 

A) My hatred for Apple

B) Not wanting to conform to the crowd

C) Reliability is undeniably bad (on previous models at least)

D) approx 75% positive reviews to 25% negative on stockist sites

 

But Im not opposed if they are the best option.

 

 

So what is the best MP3 player to get? Also size is not an issue, We'll be quite content with something around 10 gigs or so. Don't need all these 80G bull shit.

 

Thanks for any help.

[Guest Jordan]

I've used around 6 MP3 players for long periods of time. 3 Zen's, 2 Zune's and an iRiver.

 

I can honestly say, my Zune 80 is by far the best one i've used. Its screen is superior to anything on the market within its price range. 80GB of storage, a strong battery life and great sound quality. The Zune 80 is well known as the best HDD based PMP on the market at the moment.

 

However, you will not get a 10GB MP3 player. You'll probably find you'll be able to find an 8GB or a 16GB, due to binary 'n all that.

 

My recommendations:

Zen Stone Plus 8GB (i think you can get them that big..?) - OLED screen, short battery (8-12 hours), but bloody tiny.

Zen (not X-Fi) 8GB - has expandable storage, nice screen.

Zune 8 - Great interface, screen size is decent, good battery life also.

Samsung P2 - Pretty expensive, but looks amazing with a fantastic screen, touch interface and highly recommended.

[khilafah]

When is the Iriver Spinn due to be released as that looks pretty nice and 8GB should be about £150.

 

Can you just drag and drop with Iriver's as me personally, I won't use any MP3 player/PMP that does not allow me to just drag and drop using explorer.

 

I have my friends 80GB ipod here now as he wants me to load it with music and video's but it is a pain.. Using itunes is BS, i really dislike it and don't know how people use it.. If you dont want the hassle of using software then stay away from ipod's dude.

 

I bought my mum the Sony NWZA818 - 8GB and they are pretty good. you can get them for £100-£130 and you dont need to use the shitty Sony Software to transfer music.

 

I myself use Meizu M6 SL 8GB which is very nice. Has a Wolfson WM8987 audio chip so sound quality is very good. Battery is great, 20 hours audio time! Problem is that it is a chinese player so you will probably have to buy on the net. UK sites sell 8GB for about £80 these days.

 

Oh and if you ever want a HDD PMP then its Archos all the way..

[Ashley]

Claire and I are wanting an MP3 player, the last one we got was epic shyte, some Samsung bullshit, didnt work properly.

 

Im reluctant to get an iPod due to ;

 

A) My hatred for Apple

B) Not wanting to conform to the crowd

C) Reliability is undeniably bad (on previous models at least)

D) approx 75% positive reviews to 25% negative on stockist sites

 

But Im not opposed if they are the best option.

 

 

So what is the best MP3 player to get? Also size is not an issue, We'll be quite content with something around 10 gigs or so. Don't need all these 80G bull shit.

 

Thanks for any help.

 

B) But you end words with -z...thats very conventional (or was in the 90s) :p Oh and through saying you hate Apple im guessing you're using Windows thus you're conforming to the crowd :p

C) I wouldn't say that. I've had mine since February 06 and only needed completely resetting once. Which is a pain but unfortunatly pretty common for technology.

 

Im not saying do it. You need to go with what you feel best with. I like my iPod, it does what I wish it to (play music) and was a good price for a good size at the time of purchase. Only real benefit I can see to the iPod is there is a bigger market geared toward its accessories.

 

Before that I had the Creative Touch which lasted 11 months (then got it replaced, sold on ebay for the same as I bought it for).

 

Surely you have friends with mp3 players (other than ipods), see if they'll let you give them a quick whirl. If not places like PC World, Comet, Currys etc will let you.

[Jasper]

Most PM3 players will do, but there is a reason why iPods are so hugely popular. iPods are pretty good devices with a good intuitive interface, an easy applications to get your music on (you do that with explorer for other devices, and explorer can't really manage music like that). And off course, they're also pretty slick devices.

 

If you would go with something besides Apple, Zens from Creative are popular devices that manage to keep the 'low-profile' iPod. Zens are the cheaper chineze counterpart of the iPods, and their interface works (it's not great, my brother has one and it's got flaws, it stole ninety percent from Apple - but it's good and usefull enough). The only problem is the strange media browser that Creative uses, wich I find a mysterious Application that doesn't do much special.

 

But, not as an Apple user, I would advice you to go with the iPod. It's nice not to go with the flow when you get the chance, but if you have to put down money I would go with that flow - because I hear a lot of good comments from friends and read a lot of them online (had some good experiences, too) - and they are good MP3-players.

[Emasher]

Alot of the time iPods get bad reviews because the people who review them either don't like Apple, or because they say other MP3 players have more features. The thing though is, alot of the features on the iPods are done better than the ones on other MP3 players. And most of the features they lack aren't used that often anyway. I'd say get an iPod Touch. I bought a classic back almost a year ago, but I'm regretting not getting the touch instead at this point.

[Guest Jordan]

(it's not great, my brother has one and it's got flaws, it stole ninety percent from Apple - but it's good and usefull enough).

 

You are aware its the other way around right? Creative took Apple to court over the use of the interface and Creative won.

[Hellfire]

I'm very happy with the Creative Zen. Lots of space, great interface, customizable, pretty, big enough to see some videos and pics, small enough to call it portable and good sound quality (won't risk saying it's great, since it's not my area of expertise, but it sounds great to me). It's nothing like Jasper says, it's not the chinese iPod at all, the quality of the materials is fantastic and the battery is great too. Also, it's piss easy to organize, you don't even need to use the creative software if you don't want to, but even if you do, you can drag and drop normally, browse to add, etc... Also, SD support, which is awesome.

 

I'd never go for the iPod touch though. It's just not what an mp3 player should be like. First, it's big, second, since it's big and has a touch screen, you have to be very very careful, meaning it loses a lot of portability. Third, no buttons. In case you have it in your pocket or whatever if you wanna do anything you need to pick it up to look at the screen to know what you're doing. It's pretty neat with that sleek interface and trinkets, but I wouldn't buy it.

[ReZourceman]

Thanks guys, appreciate the help. Ill let you know what she we decide on.

 

I've used around 6 MP3 players for long periods of time. 3 Zen's, 2 Zune's and an iRiver.

 

I can honestly say, my Zune 80 is by far the best one i've used. Its screen is superior to anything on the market within its price range. 80GB of storage, a strong battery life and great sound quality. The Zune 80 is well known as the best HDD based PMP on the market at the moment.

 

However, you will not get a 10GB MP3 player. You'll probably find you'll be able to find an 8GB or a 16GB, due to binary 'n all that.

 

My recommendations:

Zen Stone Plus 8GB (i think you can get them that big..?) - OLED screen, short battery (8-12 hours), but bloody tiny.

Zen (not X-Fi) 8GB - has expandable storage, nice screen.

Zune 8 - Great interface, screen size is decent, good battery life also.

Samsung P2 - Pretty expensive, but looks amazing with a fantastic screen, touch interface and highly recommended.

 

Other than memory size, is there any difference between Zune 8 and Zune 80?

[Jasper]

I'm very happy with the Creative Zen. Lots of space, great interface, customizable, pretty, big enough to see some videos and pics, small enough to call it portable and good sound quality (won't risk saying it's great, since it's not my area of expertise, but it sounds great to me). It's nothing like Jasper says, it's not the chinese iPod at all, the quality of the materials is fantastic and the battery is great too. Also, it's piss easy to organize, you don't even need to use the creative software if you don't want to, but even if you do, you can drag and drop normally, browse to add, etc... Also, SD support, which is awesome.

 

I'd never go for the iPod touch though. It's just not what an mp3 player should be like. First, it's big, second, since it's big and has a touch screen, you have to be very very careful, meaning it loses a lot of portability. Third, no buttons. In case you have it in your pocket or whatever if you wanna do anything you need to pick it up to look at the screen to know what you're doing. It's pretty neat with that sleek interface and trinkets, but I wouldn't buy it.

 

It's not that big at all, it fits nicely in your pocket - you don't have to be carefull with that thing - and the iPod Touch can't be controlled inside your pocket, but honestly: you'll get the hang of changing songs in no time getting the thing out of your pocket - double tapping home gives you controls, so it's not a huge deal, just a change of the way you use it. But it's not an advantage, yes - but all your other arguments are simple ranting.

 

Also, an iPod Touch is not an MP3 Player, it's a smart device - a smart phone without the phone part - wich can keep track of contacts, calendaring and other applications you install. It's more of a computer.

 

I didn't know it was the other way around on interface, so okay - Zen's were ripped by the iPod. But still both interfaces work (though the iPods seem to have gotten around the problem off synching to the device smoothly).

[Guest Jordan]

Also, an iPod Touch is not an MP3 Player, it's a smart device - a smart phone without the phone part - wich can keep track of contacts, calendaring and other applications you install. It's more of a computer.

 

A 'computer'? Thats pushing it. At the most, its a smart phone without the phone. Having to pay for firmware upgrades is a piss take though. A real piss take. Features added should be free, this isn't DLC for games.

 

 

Other than memory size, is there any difference between Zune 8 and Zune 80?

 

In terms of features? No. However the 80 has a much larger screen, is a little heavier and thicker. Pic below:

 

 

80 on the left, 8/4's on the right. The only downside to the Zune is that you can't register for a ZuneCard/Pass. Meaning, you can't buy music or do the whole 'social' thing outside of the US/Canada at the moment. Oh and if you buy one off ebay, get one with a UK seller or you'll basically have no warrenty...

 

I did like my Zune 8... I just needed more space.

[Shorty]

If you have a player that you just drag and drop music on through explorer, how do you make playlists?

[Guest Jordan]

In a program like winamp or windows media player usually and drop it into the "playlist" folder.

[Mr_Odwin]

If I had a spare £100 for an MP3 player I would get a Cowon iAudio.

Lots of codecs supported (ogg & FLAC are particularly interesting to me) and 60 hours of battery life. It plays video too, but the small screen would make that not so great.

[Sanchez]

If I had a spare £100 for an MP3 player I would get a Cowon iAudio.

Lots of codecs supported (ogg & FLAC are particularly interesting to me) and 60 hours of battery life. It plays video too, but the small screen would make that not so great.

 

This. Best audio quality in the market as well.

[Cube]

In a program like winamp or windows media player usually and drop it into the "playlist" folder.

 

Or they generally let you create playlists on the actual player.

 

As for what to get. All I can say is that my £30 Sony Ericsson w200i (with 2GB memory card...and I still have loads of music I don't listen to on it) has massively better sound quality than a fairly old Nano (back when it was new) and that cheapy £2 in-ear headphones increased the sound quality of said Nano tenfold.

[Guest Jordan]

Cheap headphones ftl...

 

If only they could stick an actual X-Fi sound chip into an MP3 rather than emulating it like they have in the Zen X-Fi.

 

My soundcard still creates the best audio i've ever heard when coupled with my CX-500's. Its actually pretty astounding.

[Wesley]

Zune, Zune, Zune, Zune, Zune, Zune, Zune, Zune, Zune, Zune, Zune, Zune!

 

Go with the Zune! I love mine!

 

(This was a very informative post, I know.)

[ReZourceman]

Im certainly leaning towards Zune so far. Now just the task of persuading Clazzle. Feel free to post persuasive posts, as I intend to make her read show her this thread.

 

PS Striking FTW.

[Guest Jordan]

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/items/__zune-8_W0QQ_nkwZzuneQ208Q20QQ_cqrZtrueQQ_nkwuscZzunedQQ_nkwuscZ8

 

If you do want a Zune 8, its £99.99 on ebay.

[Dyson]

Hi Claire, ReZ showed us your boobs. I think they're really hot. I'm here if you need to get away from the evil ReZ.

 

PS the mp3 player he's trying to make you buy is overpriced!

 

Oh god sorry rez. <3

[Slaggis]

I've owned both an older Zune and a range of iPods so I can give a relatively Bias free answer.

 

I loved my Zune, but now I finally gave in and bougt an 80GB classic I never want to go back. The Zune does have some great features, I loved the big album art thing, but the iPod still wins it for me. I much prefer using intunes with it than using a Zune and having to mess around getting it to work.

 

But yeah for me it would be an Ipod. Also conforming to the crowd? Surely a little ironic because you're conforming to a crowd by not getting one because of the stigma attached to them by certain people.

[Guest Jordan]

 

I loved my Zune, but now I finally gave in and bougt an 80GB classic I never want to go back. The Zune does have some great features, I loved the big album art thing, but the iPod still wins it for me. I much prefer using intunes with it than using a Zune and having to mess around getting it to work.

 

Just out of interest, which Zune did you have? And when did you own it?

 

The original Zune software was awful (lol, first generation 'n all that) the new Zune software is really RAM light and works nigh on perfect from what i've been doing with it... Apart from it refusing it take formats it doesn't understand.

[Cube]

Cheap headphones ftl...

 

I'm not saying they're good. Just that they're much better than the ones Apple throw in (or sell for £20). Plus iPod need iTunes - one of the worst media players there is. Sure, you could still use your current media player but iTunes may just randomly decide to take over all the media settings for no reason (this wasn't due to installing it or updating it...it just randomly decided to make itself my default player). Also, on a recent HDD clean-up, I found that the Apple Update program had kept installation files for around 20 versions if iTunes (and even though the updates are small, it seemed to have downloaded the whole of iTunes each time) and Quicktime.

 

Still, doesn't the Zune let you use Windows Explorer? If it does then that's a good thing as you're likely just going to dump all of your music (for those who don't have over 8GB) onto it and be done?

[ReZourceman]

Does this look like a UK one?

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BRAND-NEW-RED-ZUNE-8GB-8-GB-2nd-GEN-MP3-MP4-PLAYER_W0QQitemZ170252741877QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item170252741877&_trkparms=72%3A1121%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14