Recomendation for an MP3 player

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srbliss
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Recomendation for an MP3 player

Post by srbliss » Tue Sep 19, 2006 6:51 pm

Anyone have an MP3 player that is really tiny that would be good for walking. I am most interested in good voice quality for speech. I am looking at a new Sony that looks like a memory stick.
Thanks
Steve

hlidskjalf
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Post by hlidskjalf » Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:22 pm

My recommendation would be first looking on eBay and places for a 3G ipod. You'll get 20G for $80 or so and cool glowing buttons. As for "voice quality" that mainly depends on mp3 bitrate and things. You might consider not getting anything under 64k.
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srbliss
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MP3 player

Post by srbliss » Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:41 pm

I should have also specified not an Ipod. I can't deal with proprietary Apple software - it doesn't play well with me. :lol: I also want something tiny that I can slip in my pocket. I don't care about the user interface or playlists as all I will do is hit play and be done with it.
As far as voice quality - I meant no funky bass enhancement or EQ stuff.
Steve

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Post by hlidskjalf » Tue Sep 19, 2006 10:50 pm

I'm not an iTunes fan myself but there are many other options:

http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=138888

for Windows or:

http://www.banshee-project.org/Main_Page

if you want open source.
Burn all, burn everything. Fire is bright and fire is clean.

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reinhard
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Post by reinhard » Tue Sep 19, 2006 11:03 pm

I wish I knew the answer to this. Ipods look gorgeous but I've never heard of one lasting for more than a year. I bought an original ipod when they came out, it broke within a year and they replaced it free of charge. Very sweet of them, but the replacement also broke within a year (now out of warranty). After that I decide that I'd stick with cheaper and more reliable technology, I got an mp3 cd player. A tad annoying, but it worked. Then I got an ipod nano as a gift. Beautiful object, and I figured the flash memory would be more reliable than a hard drive based player. It broke within six months (the hold button). Again, they replaced it. But it's been barely three months now and already the hold button on this one is giving me problems. Expensive junk. Good thing I still have my mp3 cd player. It's irritating, but predictable.

Reinhard

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lysiosquillid
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Post by lysiosquillid » Thu Sep 21, 2006 12:05 am

mp3 players are grrrrrreat! for walking. i have a sandisk 512 MB that is small, definitely holds enough songs for frollicking about. it is lovely and i've had it a year and have had no problems with it. it's got an fm radio as well as voice recording (and it records rather well, i've recorded several classes with it) even has a hold button on the side that makes sure nothing gets messed around with in your pocket. check it out: http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-512-MB-MP ... lectronics
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srbliss
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Post by srbliss » Thu Sep 21, 2006 5:20 am

lysiosquillid wrote:mp3 players are grrrrrreat! for walking. i have a sandisk 512 MB that is small, definitely holds enough songs for frollicking about. it is lovely and i've had it a year and have had no problems with it. it's got an fm radio as well as voice recording (and it records rather well, i've recorded several classes with it) even has a hold button on the side that makes sure nothing gets messed around with in your pocket. check it out: http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-512-MB-MP ... lectronics
Creepy! I just clicked on one of the add links to Amazon to look at a Sandisk MP3 player! My coworker has one and really likes it.
Steve
Started NOS and Shovelglove August 21, 2006.

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lysiosquillid
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Post by lysiosquillid » Thu Sep 21, 2006 5:46 am

yes that is a plus. getting one gets you into this club where you bring them up and someone knows someone with it. it's a great social network starter. :lol:
"Who goes there?"
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CharlieAngel
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Post by CharlieAngel » Sat May 17, 2008 5:34 am

Cowon D2 is the front-runner in my future acquisitions. 4gig or 8gig model with SDslot for "unlimited" expandability, 50 hour (real-world) battery life for music, 10 or so for video, hackable firmware and interfaces and various audiophile website say it's got the best audio quality of all the portables. Just a tad bigger than a credit card.

No, I didn't sign up just to post that. :) My current player is one I got from my workplace, a 1gig Samsung of some sort. It's really decent, especially for free, but I'd like to have more variety...

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reinhard
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Post by reinhard » Tue May 20, 2008 7:22 pm

I guess I should report that my "expensive junk" nano I posted about previously (in 2006) is still working (and HEAVILY used). Was just a gunk in the hold button issue. So I guess I'll have to upgrade my opinion of the thing.

Reinhard

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OrganicGal
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Post by OrganicGal » Thu May 29, 2008 8:59 pm

I'm still using my Sony Sport discman for walking... :lol: MP3 players are too complicated for me. Although I might be willing to try one if someone sets it all up and loads all my favs onto it... :shock:
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Nichole
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Post by Nichole » Mon Jun 09, 2008 7:50 pm

I own an 80 gig iPod Classic. It cost me $250 but was one of the best purchases of my life!! It keeps me entertained at work and during my workouts. If I get sick of music, I have podcasts and two seasons of two different TV shows. I love listening to podcasts while walking. Makes it go by fast. I haven't bought any books on iTunes yet, but would consider it if I get bored again and need more variety.
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kbits
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Post by kbits » Tue Jun 10, 2008 3:52 pm

I got one of these for $99. Mine has 2GB internal memory with provision of more via SD cards. It also has an inbuilt microphone for recording voice and plays MP4's.

http://www.tesora.com.au/Olin_MP3_MP4_M ... _10425.htm

Very light (~100g) and about the size of a credit card. Though of course, not as small as a nano

CharlieAngel
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Post by CharlieAngel » Fri Jun 13, 2008 8:16 pm

Got my Cowon D2 the other day. So far, it's pretty nice. I just need to get a better pair of headphones for it. I left my other PMP on the airplane. :(

Some notes: It's a lot heavier than I thought, and it's kinda bulky. Not in an original iPod way, but it was still a little surprising.

ejuk8r
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ipod idea

Post by ejuk8r » Wed Jul 02, 2008 10:01 am

I just bought a Sirius satellite radio Stilleto 100 and I love it. You can record your favorite music right from the stations and of course listen to sports, news radio (CNN, etc.), court tv. If you go onto Sirius.com they have them on sale. It is a little cumbersome, and reception can go in and out as you walk or run if you are in a place with a lot of trees. Although it is not a big problem. I like the variety of listening choices it gives me.
If they merge with XM, there will soon be even more listening choices.

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Post by Finnigan » Wed Jul 02, 2008 1:26 pm

I just picked up my very first MP3 player. It is a Transcend T. Sonic 630. It is a 2 gigabite player/recorder and it was $50.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=2761

I have only had it a few days, but so far I quite like it. One of the features I really wanted that it had is "line in" recording. This means I can hook it to the headphone jack of an old cassette player, cd player, or really anything and make copies of old stuff. I think "Technically" this is illegal, I'm not sure, but it's not like I'm distributing the files once I make them. The record quality isn't fantastic, but it's good enough to listen to unless you are a real audiophile.

The line in jack can also be used for a microphone, and it also has a built in microphone. This will come in handy as I'd like to do some interviews of my kids to save for the future. I might even interview my grandmother about the family tree before she passes, though I don't think she'll remember much at this point.

Oh, it also has an FM radio. It's roughly 3"x1"x1/2".

Anyway, it's a cheap little player, and so far it works and I like it.

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botulf2000
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Post by botulf2000 » Wed Jul 02, 2008 8:24 pm

I know the iPod was sort of out of the question, and I don't really like the restrictions apple puts on it. But the way I see it is that Apple has made the complete tool-chain work great. From the device it self, to the sync with iTunes and finally to the iTunes Music Store for buying music/books/etc. It's integrated, it works together and it's simple to use (in my opinion).

But... It's apple. It got DRM. The iPod lacks some functionallity, compared to other devices. So if it's worth it? I guess it depends. When looking at only the device, there are better choices. When looking at the whole chain, maybe the iPod wins.

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Post by navi » Wed Jul 02, 2008 9:36 pm

If you intend to use it for digital books from the library, be sure to check out your library's website for required specs - you first have to download a small program that makes the books you "check out" expire in a certain number of days - the system my library uses won't work with Ipods. I am sure this differs from library to library.....

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