After having the third Discman in the past year or so go completely kaput on me for no reason, I’ve decided I am sick of the last century’s technology, and may be ready for an upgrade. It’s all well and good that they are relatively cheap, but when they die every few months, then they cease to be so economical.
My little brother is jonesing for an iPod, but should I be, too, or is there a better (either more user-friendly, or more economical) alternative? The extra orders of magnitude in storage capacity are nice, but mostly I want something that is easy to use, flexible in its application, and will hold up well. (I commute about 2 hours a day with headphones on, because reading on a moving train makes me queasy.) It doesn’t have to be the newest, most neato gadget on the market, but I do want something that will do what it’s designed to do, and do it well.
Go ahead, make your case! My birthday is coming up, and Dad has hinted he might spring for a gift certificate to Best Buy…
A Zen jukebox is just as easy to use as an iPod and is half the price.
Most of my friends who got ipods chose them because they were cute and small. If you are going to be doing a lot of walking, you might want to get an iPod since they are smaller and easier to carry around. The 4 gig iPod is 3.6 oz versus 7.9 for the Zen.
Personally, I chose the Zen, then again, my exboyfriend chose the iPod because he keeps less songs and does a good deal of walking every day. I mostly use the Zen sitting in airplanes and long trips.
Oops, the 4 gig ipod is 250, not 240. I also forgot to mention battery life. The iPod has an 8 hour life while the Zen has a 14. Personally, I’d get the Zen, but if I had money I’d get the iPod since they are cuter.
I went through this last summer (ages ago tecnology-wise), and my goals were different (jogging), but I will still provide the following general tips:
[ul][li]Take a few units for test runs. Buy them at a store that has no restocking fee for returns. This was the most essential part of my research.[/li][li]Regular batteries: How easy is it to open the battery cover? How flimsy is the battery cover – you will be opening it frequently. How expensive are the cells. Can you run it with rechargables? (NiMH AAA cells are excellent!)[/li][li]Internal rechargable battery: How long does it last? How expensive to replace? Do you need to sent it to the factory to change the battery?[/li][li]How delicate is the device? Can you bash it up a bit without ruining it?[/li][li]How easy is it to carry? For going on the train, you don’t have the same requirements that a runner does, but it still is a factor.[/li][li]Data transfer: How easy is the data transfer process? Do you have to use their funky tool, or can you use any tool? Are the drivers buggy?[/li][li]Compatibility: Does it work with WMA files (or other special formats) as well as MP3 files?[/li][li]Usability: Poke around at the buttons and see how hard it is to navigate through your tunes, pause, startup, shutoff, etc. An example of a usability issue: my MP3 player shuts off after 30 seconds on pause – this really became an issue when I was listening to audio books, pausing them to talk to someone for 45 seconds, and then seeing that my device had shut off. The huge audiobook files also illustrated the importance of better fast-forward/reverse controls.[/li][/ul]
OK, there’s two different types of players which need to be talked about…
Hard drive-based players, such as the iPod, which have already been described. Expensive, but hold a vast amount of music. And there’s memory-based players, the ones similar to pen drives. Typically 128-512MB, which is enough for 2-12 hours of music depending on the compression. And much much cheaper (I got one on eBay for £30). This is IMO all that’s necessary if you’re (1) using it daily for commuting or suchlike, and (2) already have a lot of music on CD. Each morning I just wipe it, and transfer files onto it for that day, or copy a CD straight into mp3 format on the player. They’re also much smaller than hard drive players.
If there’s something easier to use than an iPod and iTunes (and really, using the two together is the closest you have to psychic software right now), I haven’t heard of it.
People who say “So-and-so is just as good as the iPod” are merely trying to convince themselves that their non-iPod purchase was not a mistake.
My old Iriver MP3 player was damn easy to use, just click and drag. Installing the software was easy all I had to do was put the CD in.
I just bought a Philips SA230 which has 128MB storage and can accept a 256MB flash media card for $28 total a few days ago on ebay. You don’t need to spend $200+ on an MP3 player like a new Ipod if you don’t want to. I would’ve bought another Iriver but they are around $80. Also do you need a 10 or 40 GB MP3 player? Jones law of shelf space notwithstanding one CD of music is equal to about 64MB of space. If you are comfortable listening to the same CD during the day then something under 256MB will probably be fine as long as you switch songs every few days.
I don’t know tons about MP3 players but software can be a bitch sometimes. Sometimes its not as easy as putting the CD in and getting the software to work. There are compatibility issues and whatnot.
Bestbuy has a restocking fee. At least they do on Tivos (15%) so if you are going to try MP3 players I wouldn’t go there. Walmart doesn’t have a restocking fee.
[QUOTE=GorillaMan]
OK, there’s two different types of players which need to be talked about…
QUOTE]
Actually, there are three. Creative Labs also offers the Muvo^2; a flash drive based player that is much better than the hard drive based players for anyone wanting to use one for jogging or exercising who wants a lot of music. The smaller MuVos-the memory based players- start at 64 MB and go up to 512 MB.
The flash drives Creative uses in their Muvo ^2 retail for about 500.00. The players are being sold for significantly less-we got a hell of a deal on those drives.
Then they remember that their Zen’s battery still works, and are then quite happy they didn’t buy into the zombificating hype that “a cuture unit is worth the 50% markup”.
I think, beyond your needs and uses, it comes down to personality as well. I’m the type of person who needs his entire music collection with him because he suddenly wants a particular song right now. I also tend to lose the teensy flash memory cards. Thus, for me, the first outlay of cash was worth it because I would constantly be purchasing new cards.
I bought an iPod and have found it easy to use and easy at interfacing with my computer. That’s really all I can ask for…
And even when their Zen battery dies, they can get a new battery and change it out themselves with the flip of the faceplate.
I myself have one of the old Jukebox’s and I am very fond of it. But the Zen Touch looks interesting and I recently filled out some surveys for some upcoming MP3 players from Creative that are very cool looking. I really like the Zen Media Centers that they’re taking pre-orders for but I can’t justify that kind thing, even with the employee discount.
I don’t trust that list. What exactly does the iPod have over the iRiver? And where is the iAudio M3L? And why do these companies feel the need to rip off the whole i-thing? It turns i-off.
If you want to know what the best mp3 player is, read this thread at Penny Arcade, specifically page two. That Necro Romancer lad sure is a helpful one!
My opinion, after reading reviews for months, is that the iRiver brand is the best. They make flash, mp3 CD, and HD players. Another one is the iAudio M3L. It has a 35 hour battery life, and if you can handle the price and always needing an attached remote, it’s an excellent choice.
I’d avoid getting anything less than 4gb. One of the nice things about having an mp3 player is the ability to have your entire music library with you in one device. If you’re going to switch memory cards every time you want to listen to a new album, you might as well buy a cd player and bring the cds with you.
That being said, I have an ipod and I really like it a lot. It works very well and has a great, and simple to use, interface. Now, there are cheaper alternatives, but from my experience, there isn’t a better deal. If you really plan to use this thing every day, you’re going to want something that you really like. Most everyone whom I’ve spoken to really enjoys their ipod - there is a reason these things sell like hotcakes. Now, certainly some will argue that part of the ipod’s success is because they are trendy - and there isn’t much doubt to that - but they are also great mp3 players that have a very high satisfaction rating.
If you have an apple store near you, I recommend going down to it and take one for a test drive. Apple retail store employees are usually very helpful. You can find a local store here: http://www.apple.com/retail/
Also, I would highly recommend staying away from the new Sony device. It doesn’t play mp3s. Rather, everything is converted into their proprietary format - which becomes a real pain in the ass if you ever want to get a different device.
