what mp3 player ???

hi

Really fed up now, looked at loads of reviews....whats the best 10gb-20gb mp3 player ???

really cannot make up my mind, ipod, creative, philips, iriver..help !!

 

which ever's cheapest in my opinion...
a friend has the iriver 20gb and itsx great. but its expensive though
...another friend has the 20gb ipod, and that's pretty cool, a lttle too expensive for waht you get though.
the creative nomad zen extra looks pretty good, and especially for the price, but it is a little big compared to the others

i'd say if you have the money, pay a lot for the iriver and get great features and quality, good looks, and a small size, other wise go for the creative.
ipod's just too overpriced without as many features as the others.

 

make sure it can be accessed like a portable harddrive through usb and make sure its usb 2.0 i only got usb 1.1 on my 20gb lyra

this is the one i got

it works pretty good, after updating the internal programming it can run mp3 and wma. but make sure you get one that will also play wav files.
mines usb 1.1 kinda slow, takes a second or 2 to send a song, or about 5-10 seconds for a 33mb file make sure you get usb 2.0
they will set you back a couple hundred, and i wouldnt advise using a creative nomad as you cant access them like a usb harddrive "i also use my mp3 player as a portable storage device"

just keep some of the newer rca Lyra's in your mind their not that pricey and they work pretty well.. i cant complain, i got mine for 200$

 

thanks for the tips - do you know anything about the 20gb philips that is out ??

At the moment, i'm more moved towards the iriver, I thought ipod was a bit overpriced aswell

is that rca lyra ?? never really heard of it...if you recommend them though I'll have a look

 

I feel sorry for you, I got v1.1 USB for my Creative Rhomba, it's only a flash player of 128MB but the transfer rate is barely 350KB/s which means 6 full minutes to fill it up. But v1.1 for a 20GB drive...ouchies.

 

iPods are definitely overpriced and the headphones would probably make you a likely target of muggings (not kiddin' either).

Anyway, doesn't seem like there are any Philips brand (in UK), anyway, this little baby doesn't look too bad;


From ebuyer

£210.44 Inc VAT. for 30GB, the iPod 40GB costs a whopping $415.03 inc VAT. Absolutely insane ripoff.

 

I heard you can't use the creative as an external HDD, i don't know if this is true..but if it is i'd stay away from it

 

well actually my usb 1.1 is faster then 12mbs i noticed. it took me maybe 10mins to put about 2.5gb onto it. the usb 1.1 12Mbs isnt hard set i noticed. its surely more then 12mbs thats for sure. and they copy over like a portable harddrive "like i plug it in and goto my computer and there it is"

"most of my music is videos soo i have about 1,000 songs on it at about 2-2.5gb full" just think of how much i can fit.. like 10,000+ songs.. which is why HDD MP3 players are much better then a flash one. i have a cheap little flash one that uses smart media. but surely wasnt worth it. i couldnt use the flash media like a removable drive, it had its own special little format and everything. and it was LTP port too.. that was horrible 3mins to copy 1 song..

so usb 2.0 or even 1.1 is pretty good. i dont know of any programs that messure harddrive speed speed cause im kinda curious as to how fast it actually sends..

Edit: ok i did disk bench, and it goes about 0.468Mbs

Which is ok.. i dont remember how long it actually took to send all the music over, i just copy it over, made dinner and when i was done cooking it was done soo..

 

Err to transfer 2.5GB at 468KB/s (3.744Mb/s) takes 89 minutes, give or take, I mean if you want to fill that 20GB...holy crap you'd have to leave it overnight. lol

 

it sure didnt seem to take that long, like seriously.. i just let it go while i was cooking.. and it was done when i got back.. as i said i dont think the speeds were hard set.. also i noticed some of my usb ports are faster then others.. "i check 2 are set for 23% reserved system resources and the other 2 are at 10%.."

i didnt time it so maybe it was like when your doing something you want to do time seems to go faster "i like to cook" so maybe it did take that long, but it surely didnt seem like it..

Also harddrive mp3 players ARENT for if you want to use it while jogging or anything. dont want to mess up the platters in the small harddrive.
though i dont see how anyone would want a flash card mp3 player, they dont hold much and the mp3 player + enough flash cards cost just as much if not more then a hdd mp3 player.. "rca doesnt manufacture mine anymore plus it was the last one in the store and it was in an incased shelf display so it was preopened" so i got a discount would normally be like 275$.. but it works all the same, i cant complain..

 

Obviously Hard disk players shouldn't be subjected to vigorous vibrations, although a recent mini iPod advert suggested otherwise. :?

But Creative have made a Muvo with 512MB of flash ram...which would also be useful for moving big files which you can't be bothered to burn onto a CD.

 

I will probably want to use it for the gym and some running/cycling though...

Am I going to be best suited to got for a 512 flash then ??

the cost isn't really an issue and I don't have a problem with removing and adding mp3's after I get bored with them

any 512mb or 1gb mp3 players you can recommend for this ???

 

Currently, the largest it 512MB flash drive, a decent one is;

Bit pricey at 160 quid inc VAT, but I trust Creative Labs

 

I love my 40GB iPod, I'd never go and use anything else.

Great as it works as a Firewire drive as well

 

I bought the 40gb iriver in the end....and I'm really pleased with it. Bought some extra koss headphones cause the ones with it are rubbish

thanks for all your help

oh, finchwizard, i've got 1gb corsair 400mhz ram, as you have 2gb - it there a noticible difference ???(see side for the rest of my spec)

 

Only when you start using a lot of it.......like encoding/decoding, big Photoshops etc.....

 

A Rio Karma is my choice. I own one, and it is awesome. Sound quality is noticably better then the iPod or Dell DJ... only other two I was able to compare. Also, the Dock it comes with is so awesome if you have a HTB system or anything, also can set it up as a network player. I love my Karma. Also, the controls on it are so convinient... if you are right handed everything is set up very nicley. The player is also designed to fit your hand, which is very nice.

 

I've dropped my 30 Gig IPod from a height (not on purpose mind you!) of 4 feet...landed hard on the ground.....picked it up fearing the worst....still works like a charm...*shrug* The only thing I hate about the Ipod is (besides the obvious cost) the battery life is not as it should be...but I plan on rectifying that with a third party battery when the warranty goes out.

Dan

 

I have no idea what anyone would do with 10GBs of songs (away from the home). It would take more than a week to listen to them all.

...anyway; my suggestion would be to spend the money on a Pocket PC. I have an HP IPAQ and in addition to being able to listen to great sounding music for more than a few hours - via the SD card, I also have the normal MS Office programs, plus a lot of others and voice recording.
Just a thought.

 

I don't know about the Karmas or whatever they are, never heard of them.

But my iPod (40GB) I love to have all my music on it......cary it around anywhere...... plus I can load all kinds of stuff on it, such as ISOs, programs, all kind of junk whenever I want.

Just acts like a Firewire drive, which is incredibly handy, I don't know if the Karama thingo can do it, but I know it's a handy feature to have.