Need advice on MP3 player

[II Gyan II]

I'm in the market for a hard-drive based MP3 player. Budget is $350. I need to store at least 2000 avg.length songs. Decent battery life. Decent navigation and display. Decent output power. Least-hassle interfacing and data transfer. Features like mic and recording, an added bonus.

So far, the iRiver iHP-120 seems the one. Any comparable or better ones?

[gotpasswords]

How about the 10 GB iPod? Holds roughly 2500 songs for $300. $399 gets 20 GB plus a remote, carrying case and desktop dock. Apple also has refurbished 20 GB iPods for $329. Works with PC or Mac, and seems to be what all the other MP3 players aspire to be.

From what I've heard, it's got some of the least-intrusive digital "rights" management. (Right for the RIAA, but wrong for you, perhaps.)

[cheddarsnax]

Have you taken a look at the Creative Nomad Zen Xtra and the Rio Karma? The Zen is a fantastic value, great sound quality, long battery life, and the battery is replaceable... unfortunately, the interface isn't all that great. Although I've never used one, it appears that the Karma's interface is equal to the iPod's (supposedly the best there is), has great sound quality and output power, plus battery life about equal to that of the Zen and the iRiver.

[unclviny]

Another vote for the Nomad Zen, I do not have one yet but I have been shopping and I have decided on the 40 gig Zen. I have heard through the grapevine that there is a class action suit going on the Ipod (no cite, I'm too lazy) because of the short battery life.

unclviny

[II Gyan II]

Thanks for the replies.

I read the reviews for the players mentioned here and it seems while the Nomads offer greater capacities at the same price point and the Rio Karma has a couple of nifty features, the iRiver has the best features, if a modest capacity at similar price point. At least, I'm confident that I made the right choice for myself.

Thanks Again.

[Crusoe]

The iPod has an excellent and intuitive interface, some very good supporting software (iTunes), and a compact design. The questions about battery life are undeniable, however, although some of the more extreme critics have been proven wrong. I have no regrets about buying mine, but would be interested to see how the battery life of other players compares (the iPod can only manage about 7-8 hours before a recharge is required). I'm sure you can get something good a lot cheaper, although I'm not personally familiar with iRiver.

[Sam Stone]

If I were looking for a new MP3 player, I'd give serious consideration to the Rio Karma, because I put great emphasis on sound quality and small size, and the Rio has both in spades. Specifically, it puts out 60mW of power per side, with a signal to noise ration of 95db.

In comparison, the Samsung Yepp-55 I have right now only puts out 12mW per side, with a S/N of 88db. Such low power means it won't drive my good headphones, or really any headphones other than highly efficient earbuds.

The new Dell Jukebox is also getting very good reviews. However, one thing about it I'd hate (and which a lot of players share) is that it doesn't play albums in order. If it's like my YEPP, you can put an album in a folder so that it'll play all the songs on the album before moving to the next one, but within the folder it plays the songs in alphabetical order. So unless you want to edit 2,500 songs and put a "1-", "2-" in front of the name, you're not going to hear your albums in the order in which you were supposed to. For some albums, that's no big deal. But for others, it can destroy the whole thing.

[II Gyan II]

Originally posted by Sam Stone
If I were looking for a new MP3 player, I'd give serious consideration to the Rio Karma, because I put great emphasis on sound quality and small size, and the Rio has both in spades. Specifically, it puts out 60mW of power per side, with a signal to noise ration of 95db.

I looked at two sites and they have different numbers:

• ZDNet says 60mW.
• Rioaudio.jp says 22.5mW per channel and 90dB S/N. It's in Japanese, but scroll down and check out the numbers.