I am looking to buy an MP3 player, but I don’t really know much about them. Does anyone know any good ratings pages on the internet? I tried to look on consumer reports because my dad’s a subscriber to the magazine, but aparently that doesn’t get you onto the website. I need a good deal, and a reliable player. Any suggestions? THanks
Typing the name of the product and the word “review” inot google will generally get you a list of reviews for the product.
There are three main types of MP3 players currently extant
Chip based - used memory cards
CD based - use CDs
Hard disk based - Internal hard disk
Chip based are smallest, most durable (media wise) and lightest and are more or less immune to shock. The chip based units can only hold as much as a chips capacity ( typically 32 megs to 512 megs) and generally use just over a meg for every minute of music with typical compression levels. Chips are the most expensive storage medium (256 meg SD chip goes for around 100 - 125.) , but can be erased and written to repeatedly if you wish to change the song lineup.
Chip based players usually run 80 - 300.
CD based players are just like your standard CD based Discman type units and play regular CDs and MP3s burned to CDs. Media cost is inexpensive from .25 each (or less) for a 700 meg CDR to about .75 for a 640 meg CDRW disc. Durability is about the same as CD based Walkmans. Good cost, utility and capacity compromise. I got these units for my kids.
CD based players usually run 60 - 200
Hard disk based players are the heaviest, most expensive and most delicate (damage wise) and have the shortest battery life, but they can hold thousands and thousands of songs on their 10-15-20 and 40 gig hard disks. The MAC IPOD is smaller than most of the others and is the most expensive for the number of songs it holds, but is usually considered to have the nicest interface. Others will give you a lot more storage or a bit better audio circuitry for the dollar, but are usually somewhat larger and clunkier. A USB 2.0 (not 1.1) or firewire interface on your PC is a must if your want to use these units efficiently.
These usually run $ 200 - $500
I got a CD player for 40 bucks. I love the fact that I can fit 200 songs onto a single CD.
The only drawback is size (it’s about as small as a CD player can get, but that’s still pretty big) and the lack of any kind of great interface.
And of course, if I didn’t have a CD burner, I wouldn’t be able to make CDs to listen to.
I bought an Axim 5 from dell.com, it’s not a “mp3 player” per se, but it does play MP3’s and seems like a better bargain. The Axim 5 is a pocket pc and I decided to buy it instead of a MP3 player because I can do the same thing and more for the price (around $200). I can play games, take notes, surf the internet, refer to a dictionary, have an alarm clock, etc… Currently I have a 256mb SD card that i plug in to it, I can fit about 70-80 songs on it. The only problem is it’s not that loud, but it gets the job done. You may want to look in to that if you’re curious about getting something multipurpose.
iRiver is (or was around April, when I got mine) a favorite on techie sites like Zdnet. It’s got internal solid state memory (no option to expand its capacity later), but runs on AA batteries, which is a big plus in my book. No hard disk, no skipping. You can hammer nails with this thing.
But it really depends on what you use it for. I rarely spend more than eight hours away from a computer in any case, so eight hours of tunes is plenty; I have a 256mg model that can pick up FM, works great for me. My dad and my sister prefer to have an entire library to take with them, so they have MiniDisc players. More durable than most hard-disk based players, and if you do manage to bung up one CD, you don’t have to trash the entire player.
I don’t recommend chip-based players; I can say from experience that if you expect the price of new chips to go down, it won’t. Most stick- or chip-based players come with 128mg or less, for roughly the same price of some 256mg embedded solid-state players. And then you get to pay $120 on top of that for more. (Don’t even bother with 64mg sticks.)
Sorry to double-post – I should say, the iRiver IFP series. They have other types of MP3 players as well, but I’m referring to the little prism-shaped ones.
If you do a search, you’ll find dozens of threads filled with people pitching their own favorites, including me, so I’m not going to repeat myself here.
When I was looking for a dependable CD player, and considering getting an mp3/CD player instead, I used the reviews on sites like Amazon and circuitcity.com. Ditto for the CD player in my car. In both cases I found the best combination of low price and good name (they’re a Sony and a Kenwood, respectively) – there were cheaper players, but the reviews showed me that I’d get what I paid for.