IPOD / MP3 Player Recommendation?

R

RobbW

Joined
Oct 15, 2003
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I did a search on IPODS, but the most information-dense posts are at least 4-6 months out of date now. Two of my kids have the 2G IPOD Nanos. They seem good, but I'd like a little more storage capability. My only experience with MP3-type players is these two Nanos.

I need a recommendation on a good IPOD-type player for myself. Here's what I'd like:

Good music quality (are some players better than others? are some music files better quality than others? what stream rate would you recommend as a minimum?)

Long battery life (10-14 hours would be great)

Large storage capacity (I won't use this for photos, data storage, videos or movies, only music, but I would like to have 1000+ song capability)

Easy to use with Windows (I'd prefer not to have 3rd-party software to manage my libraries)

Can I buy any aftermarket headphones that fit in the ear, or all they all equally poor?

Any suggestions on what else is important in a player?

Many Thanks!
 
I have the 30GB iPod Video and love it. Sound is excellent, it's easy to use and sync with my pc - iTunes has a Windows version that works just fine - small, light, has tons of accessories. I had a Creative Labs Zen micro, for one whole day. I found it too hard to use. Got the 'pod in stead and have been happy ever since.
 
Ipuds, as I like to call them, suck. They are all hype and everyone and their mother bought into it. iTunes PC version sucks. Everyone jumped on the band wagon when they came out and now they try to cram more crap into it to make up for what they should have done 4 Gens ago...and they still don't have it right. iPuds lack....

*Voice recording
*FM
*FM recording
*Drag and Drop interface through Windows Explorer
*Removable battery

What you need to get is an iRiver H10 or any one of the Creative MP3 players.
 
I got an iRiver H10 20G at Christmas. This $250 player becomes usable when you spend another $20 or so to replace the throw-away headphones included with it with good ones and drop another $30 or so to replace the bit of shower curtain it comes with as a case with something nice that actually protects the unit and has an arm band for gym use.

You shouldn't have to buy $50 worth of accessories for a $250 product.

The one thing the H10 does not come with which is a welcome omission is special software. It works with any reasonably-current version of Windows Media Player perfectly.

Even if a PC doesn't have WMP on it, once jacked in the H10 looks like a standard USB hard drive or thumb drive so you can put files on and take files off that way if you like. You don't have to install any special drivers or load any special software. BUT, you do have to have the special iRiver USB cable with you since the H10 uses a non-standard USB connector... booo... hisss.

Playing MP3s is great. They sound good (as good as MP3 over headphones ever can). The user interface is quite intuitive (which is important because the manual sucks).

Listening to the radio sucks. The receiver is just poor. Local stations that all my other radios receive well are weak and full of static on the H10. It works fine to listen to the TV audio at the gym... but being only 50 feet from the transmitte, one would expect that. Tuning the radio is painfully non-intuituve and the preset feature is cryptic.

The H10 goes a long time on a charge, days for me, but the battery guage is not accurate.

The really big problem I have with the H10 is a little button on the top labeled "Reset." Every now and then, the H10 locks up and you've got to find an unbent paperclip to press that button and reset it. In my mind, this is unacceptable is a $250 product... in any product, really. unfortunately, Microsoft has lowered the bar for everyone.

So, I'm sort of lukewarm on the H10.
 
Chuck,

Have you updated the firmware? That will make a world of difference in it's performance in the 20GB model. It addresses the lock up issue. The FM tuner on mine is great...sharp and crystal clear. I would rather spend $50 in accessories than hundreds to make an iPud what it should be.
 
As much as I hate to direct you to Al Gore's sister-in-law, Steve Jobs, I must recommend the Apple product. It is light years ahead. Sorry folks. For your bucks you are getting much bang. I use my Mini for audiobooks and don't have the first complaint. It's like it was made for the task. Don't worry about the finish. I got the silver after hearing a bunch of worry-warts complain about the "delicate" finish on ipodlounge. Unreal. This thing could withstand a trip through a sawmill. Love mine. Don't pay any attention to the battery guage, by the way. It is inaccurate. I listened to mine when it showed nothing. Played perfectly. Next time I glanced at the screen it was showing half life. Strange. Charge it up when you think about it and rock on. Cheers.
 
K.V. Collucci said:
Ipuds, as I like to call them, suck. They are all hype and everyone and their mother bought into it. iTunes PC version sucks. Everyone jumped on the band wagon when they came out and now they try to cram more crap into it to make up for what they should have done 4 Gens ago...and they still don't have it right. iPuds lack....

*Voice recording
*FM
*FM recording
*Drag and Drop interface through Windows Explorer
*Removable battery

What you need to get is an iRiver H10 or any one of the Creative MP3 players.
Click to expand...


Ken,

I have to disagree with you about the IPOD. I think 42 Million others would too. I did not buy an IPOD to listen to FM radio. You can buy products that plug in if you want this option. Moreover, the Itunes software is very easy to use and makes ripping or burning CDs very easy. I agree that a drag and drop interface would be nice. I think apple is concerned that folks would be plugging in each others IPODS and grabbing the musics for free that they want. Remember they sell lots of music at 99 cents a song. That being said, there are lots of shareware and freeware programs that allow you to do this and Anapod works well for me.
 
comet,

If your happy with your iPud then more power to you. I, on the otherhand, will never own anything made by Apple and I still think the iPud sucks. There are many other players out there that are 10x better. Maybe the iRiver isn't the best player out there but following my criteria in a player it beats the pants off anything Apple makes. If Apple makes an iPud with an integrated FM tuner and fixes iTunes to make it more user friendly I might reconsider my position. Anything is possible.
 
Oh, I like my G10.

I checked the software rev wheb I got it out of the box and it's current.

I like having the FM tuner. I like FM radio and I especially like having one thing at the gym that I can use to for MP3 or to tune in the TV audio. My club has a similar arrangement in the bar and I use my G10 there too.

Maybe I need to return my G10 and have the tuner adjusted or something.

I like the G10's metal case. It's hardly stylish... but neither is the iPod (can you say ugly?), but it is tough. It's taken a couple of tumbles already with not a scratch.
 
K.V. Collucci said:
comet,

If your happy with your iPud then more power to you. I, on the otherhand, will never own anything made by Apple and I still think the iPud sucks. There are many other players out there that are 10x better. Maybe the iRiver isn't the best player out there but following my criteria in a player it beats the pants off anything Apple makes. If Apple makes an iPud with an integrated FM tuner and fixes iTunes to make it more user friendly I might reconsider my position. Anything is possible.
Click to expand...

I have a generation 3 iPod player, it's time for me to upgrade. Would you mind listing a couple that are 10x better?

To summarize my experiences with iPod over the last 3 years:
+ Extremely easy to use.
+ Does what it's designed to do (play music) well.
+ If iTunes is not your cup of tea, there are other applications available (J. River Media Center for instance).
+ Small with extremely large memory capacity

- Battery woes: it was not designed to be replaced. Only 10 hours of playback (in my version)
- Crappy earphones

Other considerations might include size and sex appeal. iPod is definitely one of the most beautiful consumer appliances I've seen.

A couple of words about iTunes.
When your collection reaches a certain size it's hard to pick and choose what you want to listen to. iTunes (and other similar applications) have a functionality called "Smart lists". To give you an idea of how it works, I'll give you an example. On iPod you can rate songs (one star through five stars). I have a "smart playlist" which goes like this:"select all of my favorites songs that I haven't listened to in the last 2 weeks that are shorter than 10 minutes". So every time I sync with my computer iTunes automatically verifies that the songs in my smartlist match the criteria I have specified. It guarantees that my favorites never get old. Hopefully this give you an idea of positive qualities that iTunes possesses.

Hope that helps.

Cheers.
 
Hi All-

This thread is very intriguing because I'm currently considering an iPod (or iPod-like device) as a gift. The FM receivers on the competing products would be very helpful at the gym for tuning to what is shown on the overhead televisions.

If held at gunpoint and told to pick the best between either an iRiver or a Creative device, which would most BladeForum thread participants prefer to choose? Do the original Apple iPods have any advantages at all other than a simple way to go purchase music for the device?

Great thread!

~ Blue Jays ~
 
THANK YOU all! I appreciate the current information.

I've spent part of the day reading through older posts, this thread, and the iRiver, Creative and IPOD websites.

There is a real tradeoff between the absolute thin, lightweight 2-4G players, and the more portly 20-40G players. While I love the smaller versions, I think what I really want is the memory and versatility (FM/TV ability) of the larger players.

For the 20-40G players, they all have nearly the same external dimensions, with the IPOD having the slimmest proportions. On the other hand, the others have removable batteries and the IPOD does not. With the cost of the iRiver H10 comes a "free" set of $50 Sennheiser PX100 headphones if you order directly through iRiver. That is tempting.

One lingering question: based on the older posts, some players have flash memory and some are a type of internal drive. I understand the internal drives suffered from skipping and breakage if used during impact sports like running. I run. Are the current generation of players all based on flash drives, or are the larger-memory units still relying on some type of phyiscal drive?

Thanks again for the opinions and suggestions. Much appreciated.
 
Oh, I just noticed, 200th post here. WooHoo!!

OK, back to the regularly-scheduled thread.
 
:thumbup: for the Creative. I have the jukebox and the MuVo and love them both. Very intuitive and easy to use. These were my first forays into MP3 players and I have been very happy with the experience.
 
I have the iRiver H10 6GB model. It is a hard drive player. I use it when I downhill mountain bike. It has never skipped and has been dropped more times than I can count. No damage whatsoever. I'm pretty sure jogging won't make it skip especially since I jump off 8ft. cliffs with mine. ;)
 
Blue Jays said:
If held at gunpoint and told to pick the best between either an iRiver or a Creative device, which would most BladeForum thread participants prefer to choose?
Click to expand...

I haven't handled a Creative MP3 player, but I have owned several Creative products in the past and they've all sucked.

So, I would choose iRiver. It's pretty good.
 
RobbW said:
Good music quality (are some players better than others? are some music files better quality than others? what stream rate would you recommend as a minimum?)
Click to expand...

On headfi.org you can see people who spend thousands on headphones argue indefinitely for/against the audio quality of particular players, so I would think the differences are too small to be significant - at least for the more well-known brands/types.

The files: there are multiple audio codecs available today, with mp3 being the quasi-standard. If the bitrate is sufficiently high, all codecs seem to achieve "transparency" - the point where they are indistinguishable from the CD, or at least where the difference is so small that the vast majority of people won´t care. Some codecs are somewhat more efficient at this than others. For example, Ogg Vorbis files tend to be smaller than mp3 files of comparable quality. But pretty much all players can do mp3, while this is not the case for other codecs.

The commonly recommended encoding method for mp3 is using the LAME encoder at the "alt preset standard"-settings; this is usually the way ripping programs like CDex work by default. That setting will produce an mp3-file with a variable bitrate, varying between 128 and 320 kbit/s. Ripped this way my full-length albums end up at between 80 and 120MB. With fixed bitrate files I am usually happy at 192 kbit/s, but your mileage may vary.


Can I buy any aftermarket headphones that fit in the ear, or all they all equally poor?
Click to expand...

There is a large range of headphones available, and all of them fit any player (although some people claim that certain headphones sound better/worse with some particular player, but I am not sure what to think of this). The audible differences between headphone-models can be large, and in the current market the choice of headphones will thus have a much bigger effect on sound quality than the choice of audio player. Also, headphones can easily cost more than the player itself. This can lead to where you begin to think of the audio player as a replaceable accessory for your headphones.
Unfortunately, reading headphone reviews tends to be rather inconclusive, as there always appear to be just as many people who hate a particular headphone-model as there are people who love it.

Kristofer
 
this is sort of on topic and moreso off...

but i have (or... had) an ipod. i got it used for 100 bucks. generation 4. i used it for about a month.

i liked it ok. i'm not much into the whole portable music thing though, i just got it for working out mainly.


anyhow yesterday my canteen exploded in my bag and soaked everything. my ipod fried. i opened it up last night and dried out much of everything w/ a hairdryer. it's still ambiguous as to whether it's been saved, but i don't have high hopes.

one thing's for sure, ipods are damn fragile.
 
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