Media players: MP3 vs iPod vs ?? Video aside, what should I get?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve decided to dip a toe into the 21st century and buy a portable media player.

I have no real desire to watch TV on a 2" screen, so let’s forget about video capability.

Is there anything inherently better about iPods over MP3 players? Or vice versa.

Has Apple dealt with the early battery problems? Ideally, I want something with rechargeable batteries that can be replaced by the user. Whatever, I want to be able to use it while plugged into a power supply – not jst recharge the batteries when they run down.

I’m not especially concerned about having the smallest possible size. Anything cigarette pack or smaller will do.

I want CD quality, or very near to it.

I have about 200 CDs I want to load into it, and I want room for more. So I 'spose were talking about a pretty large memory.

It should come with whatever software I need to load the CDs through my computer, preferanly through a USB link – I’m kind of assuming they all do, but I’m not sure.

Are there other formats I should be considering?

I would prefer running into my stereo through an actual “line level” output rather than a headphone jack.

Price is not a particular concern – at ;east, among prices I’ve seen listed, I can probably afford something pretty high end.

Oh, yes, ease of use and programmability – of course I want both, along with standard CD shuffle functions. And some kind of category function to group them, so I can play or shuffle among different musical types or themes.

What things am I failing to think about?

2

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]
I’ve decided to dip a toe into the 21st century and buy a portable media player.

I have no real desire to watch TV on a 2" screen, so let’s forget about video capability.

Is there anything inherently better about iPods over MP3 players? Or vice versa.

Has Apple dealt with the early battery problems? Ideally, I want something with rechargeable batteries that can be replaced by the user. Whatever, I want to be able to use it while plugged into a power supply – not jst recharge the batteries when they run down.

I’m not especially concerned about having the smallest possible size. Anything cigarette pack or smaller will do.

I want CD quality, or very near to it.

I have about 200 CDs I want to load into it, and I want room for more. So I 'spose were talking about a pretty large memory.

It should come with whatever software I need to load the CDs through my computer, preferanly through a USB link – I’m kind of assuming they all do, but I’m not sure.

Are there other formats I should be considering?

I would prefer running into my stereo through an actual “line level” output rather than a headphone jack.

Price is not a particular concern – at ;east, among prices I’ve seen listed, I can probably afford something pretty high end.

Oh, yes, ease of use and programmability – of course I want both, along with standard CD shuffle functions. And some kind of category function to group them, so I can play or shuffle among different musical types or themes.

What things am I failing to think about?
[/QUOTE]

FM radio? I’ve got a cheap one that recieves signals without any other contraptions connected to it. It also doubles as a voice recorder for meetings, lectures and such. It’s a cheapo sandisk 512M one ($50), but they make better ones. I wouldn’t want one without am FM reciever.

You seem to be behind a little in terms of the technical aspects of these things.
They will all play MP3 files.
They will all be able to play back at CD quality.
They’ll all come with some type of usb cable (or firewire).
I’ve patched mine into a very decent entertainment system with just the headphone jack and the sound was incredible.
They will all have shuffle, genre, artist, etc and random to choose from.
They will all come with software, some won’t even need any - you just plug it in and drag and drop the files, like a USB drive.

As far as a specific type I can’t help you there. The one I have is on the lower end and doesn’t do everything you’re looking for. Others will be along shortly to give reviews you’re looking for.

3

Thanks for that first reply. FM is not necessary, there’s only a coule of decent stations in town.

And yes, I am sadly out of touch with digital consumer electronics.

So if iPods play MP3s, what makes them any different than MP3 platers? Again, video aside.

I did read somewhere that you could choose an MP3 compression scheme that provided “near CD” quality – leading me to think there was something being lost even at best. Is that not true?

4

If I were you, I’d go ahead and pick up a 5.5G iPod. The 30-gig size will probably be fine for you, for about $275. You may as well go with the newest and best, even if you’re not going to watch videos on it (I only use mine for music too). The battery isn’t replaceable, but in my experience iPod batteries are a lot more reliable than some alarmists would have you believe. After two years of daily use, the battery in my previous 4G iPod is still going strong. If you tend to plug it in when you’re using it instead of draining the battery, it’ll last that much longer.

Apple has a lossless audio format, but in my opinion, for earbud playback, anything over 128 Kbps AAC is overkill. You’ll be able to fit 200 discs easily, with plenty of room to grow. But if you’re primarily going to be hooking the player up to your stereo and listening through speakers, you might want to encode at a higher quality.

5

Oh, and when people use the phrase “MP3 player,” they generally just mean “portable music player.” MP3 is just one of many music compression formats, and most players will support several different formats. The “native” format for iPod and iTunes is AAC, but it’s fully compatible with MP3 also.

6

I’m also going to endorse the 30 gig iPod. They’re $250 from the Apple store, which is a stellar deal for everything you get. iTunes handles organization of your files perfectly and intuitively, with playlists and shuffle features. It’ll rip your CDs automatically and load them into your library and download cover art automatically and put the artwork on your iPod and display it while playing… truly awesome. The battery isn’t user replaceable (on paper anyway, but you can definitely replace it yourself if you HAVE to).

The iPod truly shines in 2 key areas: useability and accessories. Anyone can pick up and iPod and make it work perfectly within seconds. It’s easy and quick to use. And accessories? Holy God, there’s everything from jackets to cars to toilet paper holders with an iPod dock built in. No other media player will come even remotely close to the accessories the iPod has.

7

Does it have to get titles and cover art off the disks? I know some of my CDs have that info, but a lot (most?) don’t. I play them on my computer and it says “unknown artist” or somesuch, and I am talking about store-bought legit CDs, not copies burned by somebody else.

Is there some online data library where it can pull this info from? I really don’t like the idea of typing in several hundred artists and several thousand song titles, and I would pay something to avoid it if necessary.

This is probably the biggest reason I didn’t switch several years ago, when I copied some CDs to use at work. I got around typing all those titles by scanning the CD cover and printing them onto small cards that I stuck into the CD jackets. Obviously not a practical workaround for a player with hundreds of albums on it.

8

Oh, yes, and how am I to judge which recording format is best for me? Clearly there must be some correlation between amount of compression and sound quality. Is there some online comparison chart where I can compare them?

9

Every CD I’ve ever loaded into iTunes, it grabs the CD cover artwork and track names/album info automatically. Most of the time this stuff was not on the CD itself, but retrieved from some database. So you’ll need internet access, but I’d be surprised if the vast majority didn’t work right away.

10

And, Autumn Almanac, my battery questions are not based on alarmist press. I know several people who got early iPods, and I believe almost every one of them had to lay out more money to Apple to replace their batteries within 1-2 years. And IIRC it wasn’t cheap.

11

Most software automatically connects to cddb.com (now http://www.gracenote.com/music/) and recognises your CDs. I dislike iTunes and tend to use Winamp, but they both have that function. When I went through a mass conversion of CD to MP3 of a size similar to yours, there were only a handful it didn’t recognise (mostly obscure local stuff, which you can submit to the database if you feel motivated), and it never got it wrong.

12

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]
Clearly there must be some correlation between amount of compression and sound quality. Is there some online comparison chart where I can compare them?
[/QUOTE]

Yes, the more you compress your files, the more the sound quality will diminish. (The flip side is you get smaller file sizes and can store more music on the player.) It’s hard to judge an appropriate amount of compression, because it mainly depends on your listening environment and your subjective judgment. Like I said, I compress my files to 128 Kbps because a minute of music costs about a meg of space, and the quality is more than adequate for earbud listening at the gym or on the sidewalk. Some people prefer 160 Kbps or 192 Kbps and are willing to take the space tradeoff. You seem really concerned about lossless compression, but here’s my question: If you’re planning to do all your listening at home, in complete silence, though $5,000 audiophile headphones, what do you want a portable player for anyway?

13

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]

Is there anything inherently better about iPods over MP3 players? Or vice versa.
[/QUOTE]

The two things that Apple did exceptional was (1) the total integration between the iPod and iTunes (and the accompanying Music Store) that makes getting and managing music as seamless as it can be (2) the elegantly simple interface that makes getting to your music as easy as it can be. The way the same controls intuitively shift from navigation to volume control was revolutionary.

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]

Has Apple dealt with the early battery problems? Ideally, I want something with rechargeable batteries that can be replaced by the user.
[/QUOTE]

I’ve heard that some people have had battery problems with their iPods, but I’ve owned a few and never had a problem so I can’t speak to it. For what it’s worth, here is an iPod Battery FAQ

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]

I want to be able to use it while plugged into a power supply – not jst recharge the batteries when they run down.
[/QUOTE]

That’s how I use my iPod at work. I run the synch/charge cable from a dock to a power adapter

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]

I’m not especially concerned about having the smallest possible size. Anything cigarette pack or smaller will do.
[/QUOTE]

Check

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]

I want CD quality, or very near to it.
[/QUOTE]

This has everything to do about how you rip your music. iTunes can rip bit rates from low 16kbs to 320kbs. The trade-off is sound quality vs. file size. iTunes comes pre-set to settings that satisfy the masses, but is easily adjustable depending on how discriminating an audiophile you are.

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]

I have about 200 CDs I want to load into it, and I want room for more. So I 'spose were talking about a pretty large memory.
[/QUOTE]

That puts you beyond what an iPod Nano will hold at normal ripping. I would recommend the main iPod, which means that you’ll get video even though you don’t want it.

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]

It should come with whatever software I need to load the CDs through my computer, preferanly through a USB link – I’m kind of assuming they all do, but I’m not sure.
[/QUOTE]

iTunes. Very smoothly implemented.

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]

I would prefer running into my stereo through an actual “line level” output rather than a headphone jack.
[/QUOTE]

Like this?

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]

Price is not a particular concern – at least, among prices I’ve seen listed, I can probably afford something pretty high end.
[/QUOTE]

I would recommend going for the 80 G model because in my experience, it’s a bit of a shock at how quickly the music library grows.

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]

Oh, yes, ease of use and programmability – of course I want both, along with standard CD shuffle functions. And some kind of category function to group them, so I can play or shuffle among different musical types or themes.
[/QUOTE]

Ease-of-use is Apple’s sweet spot. You can listen by: Genre, Artist, Album, Composer, and any playlist that you create yourself. There are two kinds of playlists: manual dragging a song into a list or and “Smart Playlist” that automatically updates itself based on the metadata thats part of each song.

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]

So if iPods play MP3s, what makes them any different than MP3 platers? Again, video aside.
[/QUOTE]

Usability, brand name & perceived “coolness factor,” integration with iTunes and it’s Music Store and the entire cottage industry that sprung up around it that is going to make any little add-on you can imagine. Two notable examples are Nike integration and the number of auto manufacturers that are incorporating iPod integration into their option packages.

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]

I did read somewhere that you could choose an MP3 compression scheme that provided “near CD” quality – leading me to think there was something being lost even at best. Is that not true?
[/QUOTE]

Yes. It’s all a matter of how discerning your ears are. The die-hard audiophiles who insist on gold cables to connect their components will turn up their noses at the standard bitrate conversion but the majority of people are fine with 128-192 bitrate conversion. If you demand perfect CD quality, just pick the AIFF conversion option and you will have perfect CD quality at the expense of enormous (roughly 10 megs per minute) file sizes. It’s all a matter of preferences.

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]

Does it have to get titles and cover art off the disks? I know some of my CDs have that info, but a lot (most?) don’t. I play them on my computer and it says “unknown artist” or somesuch, and I am talking about store-bought legit CDs, not copies burned by somebody else.
[/QUOTE]

When you insert a disc into your computer, iTunes automatically goes out onto the internet to get metadata to fill the song title, artist, album, track number, disc number, and genre tags. But (to my knowledge) it doesn’t grab album artwork. If you’re on a PC, check out EyeJamz or iCoverArt. If you’re a Mac user, Fetch Art is your tool.

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]

Is there some online data library where it can pull this info from? I really don’t like the idea of typing in several hundred artists and several thousand song titles, and I would pay something to avoid it if necessary.
[/QUOTE]

Yes. iTunes pulls info from Gracenote . It’s automatic and free.

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]

Oh, yes, and how am I to judge which recording format is best for me? Clearly there must be some correlation between amount of compression and sound quality. Is there some online comparison chart where I can compare them?
[/QUOTE]

It’s all dependent on your personal preferences. Like I mentioned above, iTunes is set to setting the majority of people like. But I recommend doing a test before you rip your whole collection: Pick a representative song from your CD collection and rip it at several rates (append the name of each song with the bitrate so you can tell them apart).

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]

And, Autumn Almanac, my battery questions are not based on alarmist press. I know several people who got early iPods, and I believe almost every one of them had to lay out more money to Apple to replace their batteries within 1-2 years. And IIRC it wasn’t cheap.
[/QUOTE]

If your iPod is under warranty, it’s free. If it’s past warranty, it’s $65.95

Hope that helps.

Go Badgers!

14

Thanks for the replies so far. I was hoping to get some alternative choices besides iPods rather than choices among them, 'cause I figured that nothing is as good as the hype generated about it. But maybe the iPod is as superior as it seems to be.

Some other itemsw –

I really don’t care about cover art, just seen it when using my Windows media player. I don’t even know for certain if it comes on the disk or from the Web, since I have “always on” cable internet. I just assume it is on the disk. In fact, it would be better if I could exclude cover art if it takes up memory that could otherwise be used for tunes.

Yeah, I am pretty picky about sound quality, but not to the point of spending a fortune for Monster cables. I can hear a lot that other people can’t, and I used to mix live sound for a living, but I can’t hear any difference between Monster and any decent guage speaker wire. I can hear the difference between CDs and analog LPs on a few systems that I can’t even afford to own. For my modest system, the lack of noise from CDs more than makes up for any loss of fidelity.

Basically, if you think of a maybe a little better than average (under $1K) home theater system, I want to not be able to tell the difference between my CD and my… whatever media formet player… in an otherwise quiet home environment. I’m also picky enough to shop separately for headphones or ear buds, but that’s another thread.

15

Fredescu, why do you prefer Winamp to iTunes? Any other comments on this matter from anyone?

16

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]
I was hoping to get some alternative choices besides iPods rather than choices among them…
[/QUOTE]

I can appreciate that. In my case, I can only speak to what I know, and I’ve been an iPod guy ever since I traded in the old MP3 disc player from the late 90’s. For what it’s worth, here is PC World’s review on the Zune and the Creative Zen VisionM.

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]
Basically, if you think of a maybe a little better than average (under $1K) home theater system, I want to not be able to tell the difference between my CD and my… whatever media formet player… in an otherwise quiet home environment.
[/QUOTE]

Not that you asked, but based on this comment, I wanted to make sure you knew about another option you may not have considered. I bought and AirPort Express and added to my existing home network so I could play music to my component system.

My music plays out of iTunes via “AirTunes.”

Given that your iPod is fed by iTunes in the first place, your iPod music will be on your computer anyway and is less likely to be hampered by the dollars-per-megabyte factor.

Just throwing it out there…

17

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]
Fredescu, why do you prefer Winamp to iTunes? Any other comments on this matter from anyone?
[/QUOTE]

iTunes is a much “heavier” program with parts that run as a service and are large memory footprint even while idle. It takes longer to open up and is generally slower. Winamp is much lighter and more unobtrustive to run all the time (cite “Just an idle iTunes takes up 3x as much memory as active winamp with a song playing, playlist open, and the eq open and active”). iTunes is the only program that will connect you to Apples online store though. Possibly the iTunes interface is easier to get used to at first, but I was using Winamp well before iPods were around so I can’t offer an unbiased perspective on that. Also my comments, while not unsupported, are based off about a weeks worth of iTunes use. Soon after I got my iPod I uninstalled iTunes and went back to Winamp. I might have stuck with it if the iTunes store was available in Australia at the time for that function alone, but they were quite late on getting around to that.

18

If you plan to buy music online, your options are pretty much dependent on which player you use. Itunes has, by far, the biggest library to choose from but since Apple refuses to licence it’s playfair encryption scheme, the ipod is your only choice. Other online stores use Microsoft’s playsforsure encryption but their selections are much more limited. Unsuprisingly, ipods can’t play playsforsure files. Ironically, even MS doesn’t use playsforsure anymore and their new Zune-compatible online store uses another encryption scheme entirely.

I prefer to avoid this DRM bullshit entirely and just rip music from CD or download unencrypted MP3s from sites like MP3.com or emusic. Also, various indie labels offer direct MP3 downloads and even in a few instances, lossless FLAC files. Since you’re picky about sound quality, you’ll likely want to encode your own high-bitrate files, anyway.

As for a specific alternative to the ipod, I’ve been very impressed by the iAudio X5. It has a 30 gig harddrive that can easily handle 200 cds , excellent battery life, a built-in FM tuner and voice recorder, direct line-in recording, USB 2.0 drag and drop interface and very good sound quality. I don’t own this (yet) but I’ve had an opportunity to use one and I’ve been impressed. The interface isn’t as elegant as the ipod’s and it’s slightly bulkier but it’s more than sufficient for my needs. Best of all, the firmware can be replaced with Rockbox. The Rockbox firmware is an audio geek’s dream and gives the user access to a wealth of functionality (expanded file format compatibility, advanced equalizer options, Replaygain, customizable play screens, etc.). It can be tricky to install, though, and defintely not recommended for the average non-geek.

19

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]

Yeah, I am pretty picky about sound quality, but not to the point of spending a fortune for Monster cables. I can hear a lot that other people can’t, and I used to mix live sound for a living, but I can’t hear any difference between Monster and any decent guage speaker wire. I can hear the difference between CDs and analog LPs on a few systems that I can’t even afford to own. For my modest system, the lack of noise from CDs more than makes up for any loss of fidelity.

Basically, if you think of a maybe a little better than average (under $1K) home theater system, I want to not be able to tell the difference between my CD and my… whatever media formet player… in an otherwise quiet home environment. I’m also picky enough to shop separately for headphones or ear buds, but that’s another thread.
[/QUOTE]

I’m fairly picky about sound quality myself and find the default AAC format to be just fine for any kind of listening. I do a lot of my listening through a creamware soundcard into a Mackie mixer blah blah blah. If there is a difference it’s not enough to make a difference. Whatever headphone/earbud/car stereo you listen through will affect the sound far more than the encoding format will. Apple Lossless wasn’t worth the additional space it took up, IMO.

The truly great thing about iTunes is the $.99 single $9.99 album pricing scheme. Being able to pick out whatever song you like while leaving the rest behind is fantastic. I like it better than the subscription scheme at emusic.

I have a 4gb mini from a couple of years ago and became frustrated with the battery management sooner than I should have. A battery is charged, discharged or somewhere in between. Apple’s battery management system couldn’t tell me exactly where I was with any kind of reliability. Even though it became too flaky for me to use as a walk-about player it’s still fine as a portable library - as long as it’s tethered to a power supply. For walking around I use my Palm TX with a 1gb SD card. Rhapsody - the music program that works with the Palm - went into my itunes library and copied everything that wasn’t bought from the iTunes store and made it available for the Palm. The rhapsody/palm thing is way more clunky than the iPod/iTunes thing. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you use a Palm for other stuff.

20

Will (or can) an iPod tell you if you are loading an already-loaded piece of music onto it? I might have 3 or 4 CDs from an artist, including a “Best of…” where some of the same tunes are on one of the other disks. Can it catch these and offer me an option to skip them?

If so, is there something special I need to do to make it happen, or is it a default function?

Yes, I’ve decided to go go for an ipod, and I will most likely get it today.