What MP3 Player would you recommend? (1 Viewer)

[dunderhead]

how much is 40gig iriver?

 

[Wilbert]

My sister got me the 80G video iPod in China for €250 which is €150 cheaper than here!
This country......
*wilbert shakes head and wanders off*

 

[Quintron]

Oh yeah i have one of those too . They are great . Not one minute trouble has it given me and its been around the world . Buy anything archos . They are great .

Agreed. I have had 4 archos players over the years. Miles ahead of the competition. Theres one to suit all budgets..

I currently have the 402CC which is a small 20GB player which has a decent little camcorder built in. Great for holiday footage etc.. It has been replaced recently by the Archos 404 Cam which is a little bigger and has 30GB built in so they 402's should have dropped in price overseas..

I also have the AV500 60GB which they did a good deal on in Dixons (of all places!) last xmas, which doubles as my vcr and i use mainly for recording and watching movies with some music... Might be a little big for some..

If you want just the basics they have the XS202 which is a no frills 20gig music only player..... one of the smallest 20GB players out threre apparently..
http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/318257/art/archos/mp3-player-gmini-xs-202-2.html

They have the new 4th generation series of players which look great. Bigger than an standard mp3 player obviously.... but if you are into video then look into these..
http://www.hotmp3gear.com/

The above link is a Canadian website, which has good prices on the new stuff. The site owner Scott, will ship in a plain box labeled "computer part" thus reducing considerably possible customs charges. I have gotten 2 players from him with no hassle in the past year or so.. they are cheaper again if you buy in the states or know someone over there who can ship it on to you.

The 404 is a decent competitor to the 30GB ipod and outshines it in a lot of areas.. mainly screen and video... but for sheer simplicity and seamless integration with i-tunes especially if yer on a windows machine.. go with the venerable & ubiquitous ipod..

jus me 2 cents. Hope it helps..

 

[mr pharmacist!!!!1]

slimmer version of an iriver is the iaudio.
the body is made from part titanium or some shit so you can safely bring it to space.
same deal as the iriver, no need for software so you can just drag and drop.
its a bit pricey as you can see here
http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/131246/art/iaudio/x5l-30-gb-mp3-player.html

if you're looking for a cheaper 30 gig player that does video, jpegs etc id go for this. http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/235207/art/creative/zen-vision-m-30-gb-black.html

 

[Janer]

http://www.thumped.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=44118&highlight=mp3+gain

 

[jackofficer]

I would absolutely NOT recommend an iPod. My pice of crap is about 15 months old and I'm lucky if a fully charged battery gets me through one entire album. Piece of crap it is.

 

[photon]

I have an iRiver, and from a purely technical point-of-view, it's quite good.

However, I did have an extremely unpleasant experience with it earlier this year: there's this bit of software (DB Manager) that comes with it that allows you to sort files by their ID3 info. What you have to do is run this software on any file/folder you've just put on your iRiver, and it loads the tags into a database that lets you choose how to order files (title, artist, genre, etc.) I used to use it with my H340, and even though the software would occasionally give an error message, I'd just run it again and it would work fine.

However, in March, I'd just put a couple albums on the iRiver and ran this software as usual, and it completely crashed my laptop. My iRiver was still hooked up to it via the USB port, and the crashing of my computer basically fried the hard drive, and nothing I did could get it to restart (it got hung up on the "Loading" screen and stayed there until it ran out of power). It had been, as they say, bricked.

So I contacted iRiver support, and to cut a long story short, I was NEVER able to get in touch with them. They wouldn't reply to any of my e-mails and their phone line was either always engaged or I'd never get through at all. This was the situation for nearly six months.

I was considering looking into taking legal action when Das Funkenstein told me a friend he works with had a similar thing happen to him, and he just decided to buy a new hard drive and install it himself. DF said this friend would be willing to take a look at mine and that he'd be willing to put in a new HD for me if I bought it.

Now, I was perfectly within my rights to try to make iRiver take care of the problem for me for free, but DF's friend pointed out that there were now 60GB hard drives that would fit my H340, so if I bought one of those myself, I'd effectively have a working H360. So (with DF's help -- thanks a million again, Richie) that's exactly what I did, and it's been grand ever since. In fact, even better: not only do I now have 60GB instead of 40GB, I've also put the Rockbox firmware (http://www.rockbox.org) on it, and it is the fucking business, as it's WAY better than the iRiver firmware in just about every way imaginable.

Anyway, the moral of this long, boring story is that iRivers are great provided you DON'T:
1. use the DB Manager software (you can turn off the DB option to avoid this);
2. expect any sort of customer service or support;
3. use the installed firmware, and go with Rockbox instead. (The Rockbox firmware is also available for other mp3 players, not just the iRiver.)

 

[P. Littbarski]

I have an iRiver, and from a purely technical point-of-view, it's quite good.

However, I did have an extremely unpleasant experience with it earlier this year: there's this bit of software (DB Manager) that comes with it that allows you to sort files by their ID3 info. What you have to do is run this software on any file/folder you've just put on your iRiver, and it loads the tags into a database that lets you choose how to order files (title, artist, genre, etc.) I used to use it with my H340, and even though the software would occasionally give an error message, I'd just run it again and it would work fine.

However, in March, I'd just put a couple albums on the iRiver and ran this software as usual, and it completely crashed my laptop. My iRiver was still hooked up to it via the USB port, and the crashing of my computer basically fried the hard drive, and nothing I did could get it to restart (it got hung up on the "Loading" screen and stayed there until it ran out of power). It had been, as they say, bricked.

So I contacted iRiver support, and to cut a long story short, I was NEVER able to get in touch with them. They wouldn't reply to any of my e-mails and their phone line was either always engaged or I'd never get through at all. This was the situation for nearly six months.

I was considering looking into taking legal action when Das Funkenstein told me a friend he works with had a similar thing happen to him, and he just decided to buy a new hard drive and install it himself. DF said this friend would be willing to take a look at mine and that he'd be willing to put in a new HD for me if I bought it.

Now, I was perfectly within my rights to try to make iRiver take care of the problem for me for free, but DF's friend pointed out that there were now 60GB hard drives that would fit my H340, so if I bought one of those myself, I'd effectively have a working H360. So (with DF's help -- thanks a million again, Richie) that's exactly what I did, and it's been grand ever since. In fact, even better: not only do I now have 60GB instead of 40GB, I've also put the Rockbox firmware (http://www.rockbox.org) on it, and it is the fucking business, as it's WAY better than the iRiver firmware in just about every way imaginable.

Anyway, the moral of this long, boring story is that iRivers are great provided you DON'T:
1. use the DB Manager software (you can turn off the DB option to avoid this);
2. expect any sort of customer service or support;
3. use the installed firmware, and go with Rockbox instead. (The Rockbox firmware is also available for other mp3 players, not just the iRiver.)

as a fellow iRiver H340 user I have to agree...the iRiver H300 series was amazing, but as I understand they have stopped making them and are almost impossible to get now.

2 mates of mine got the H10 iRiver and both players ended up crashing on them more than once and eventually had to be replaced. In the end they went for different mp3 players, so going by their experiences I would say avoid the H10.

Hey Photon...how long did it take you to install the rockbox firmware ?

 

[Funkykitchen]

I had an iriver (h120,since discontinued) which was great stuff until it mysteriously stopped working (fair enough,i left it exposed to a magnet) and then a while back i got a purple sony, the NWA1000,and that was grand too,alhough the software was a bit terrible.That got stolen a week or two back,which was supremely shit.
Generally, not the biggest fan of ipods.
Generally, dislike flash memory (not enough of it)
Generally, like the idea of mp3 players and enjoy them but sooner or later,they will control your life, and if they get lost or stolen you could stand to lose.
Iriver are a lovely bunch of people.
iAudios look pretty solid.Do try to stick to some of the more major brands and also overestimate what storage space you'll need, as your music collection WILL grow over time.

 

[the departed]

I would absolutely NOT recommend an iPod. My pice of crap is about 15 months old and I'm lucky if a fully charged battery gets me through one entire album. Piece of crap it is.

ive had mine for 17 months. get about 5 1/2 hours out of the charge.
maybe you just didnt look after the battery well enough?

 

[RSJ]

Anyone reccomend a good mp3 player that i can just drag and drop mp3s onto? I have a creative zen but i'll be travelling so i dunno if i'll be able to install the software in internet cafés and shit.

 

[clonan attack]

Thats gas,
I'm in the exact same predicament. I'm thinking the iriver maybe 40gb will do, will need it for a year around the wortild.

Thanks

 

[HMD]

does the Iaudio one no do this?

 

[Franco]

Iaudio. I've got this one iAudio X5

super handy for just dragging and dropping shit onto. radio and a dictaphone on it too.

If you're travelling, get the iAudio X5L, which is the same but with twice the battery length.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

The cheapo ones from Lidl or Aldi are grand but I think they're only a gig or two.

 

[theoootini]

Iaudio. I've got this one iAudio X5

super handy for just dragging and dropping shit onto. radio and a dictaphone on it too.

If you're travelling, get the iAudio X5L, which is the same but with twice the battery length.

why have you got her out of that 70's show on yer dinkum?

 

[Franco]

cos she's purty.

 

[Lefty Frizzell]

The iAudio is very easy to use and the plug and play thing is handy.

So whether your travelling, at home or simply looking for an accesible data storage device the iAudio X5L is the natural choice.

Thats the iAudio X5L...the sound of tomorrow.

 

[RSJ]

How do you find it compared to the creative, oh leftily frazzled one?

 

[Lefty Frizzell]

How do you find it compared to the creative, oh leftily frazzled one?

I don't own one but i've used one. Its all down to personal taste really. I've never had a problem with a creative.