# Tell me about MP3 players **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 10, 2004, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mp3-players/263928 "2004-09-10T17:11:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mp3-players/263928/21 "2004-09-11T07:50:44Z")
> [@Necro Romancer](#): > > Is that less than a fuckton? I don’t know - is a fuckton bigger than 9,356? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mp3-players/263928/22 "2004-09-11T07:55:44Z")
> [@Necro Romancer](#): > > Is that less than a fuckton? Well, I’ve never measured it. Perhaps we could work on defining greater and lesser than a fuckton for the good of science. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Necro\_Romancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@Necro\_Romancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necro_Romancer)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mp3-players/263928/23 "2004-09-11T08:09:06Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > I don’t know - is a fuckton bigger than 9,356? 🙂 I’ve heard of larger collections, but my 1,125 quiver in its greatness. > [@Mockingbird](#): > > Well, I’ve never measured it. Perhaps we could work on defining greater and lesser than a fuckton for the good of science. Not tonight dear, I have a headache. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mp3-players/263928/24 "2004-09-11T08:31:17Z")
> [@Necro Romancer](#): > > I’ve heard of larger collections, but my 1,125 quiver in its greatness. > > Not tonight dear, I have a headache. 😃 I have an assortment of Bayer, Excedrin, Aleve, Ibuprofen, Midol, Pamprin, and Hydrocodone for you to select from. Will that arrest the headache? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RandomLetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8edcca/32.png) [@RandomLetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandomLetters)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mp3-players/263928/25 "2004-09-11T09:10:47Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Hmmm…I’ve got a 160GB hard drive full of music…and a few hundred CDs…how big are these iPod things, again? 😃 That is impressive; my mp3 collection is stuck on a 120GB disk, and it still has a couple gigs left to fill. Now, my _pr0n_ collection on the other hand, well all I can say is thank God for multi-terabyte RAID setups. ---
**Author:** ![by-tor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/by-tor/32/266_2.png) [@by-tor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/by-tor)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mp3-players/263928/26 "2004-09-11T09:18:21Z")
I love with my iAudio M3L. It acts as a second hard drive and you can put any kind of file on it. Just drag and drop. Got some senns px100 and 200 for it. It sounds great. ---
**Author:** ![by-tor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/by-tor/32/266_2.png) [@by-tor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/by-tor)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mp3-players/263928/27 "2004-09-11T09:20:31Z")
Oops. Typo. Scratch the with in the first sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Necro\_Romancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@Necro\_Romancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necro_Romancer)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mp3-players/263928/28 "2004-09-11T09:49:53Z")
Do you use the backlight often? How many hours on average does the battery last? ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mp3-players/263928/29 "2004-09-11T10:13:23Z")
I’ve yet to see anything easier to use than an ipod and itunes-- many other MP3 players are just clunky in comparison. And if you’re slowly making your way into the 21st century, being able to dump your address book, calendar, and other stuff onto the hard drive therein is a nice touch (yeah, you’ll have to do it at your desktop and then sync it over, but if you’re not likely to be carrying your daytimer or PDA around…) An ipod will easily cover your commute time and a great big chunk of your working day-- the latest ones are good for 12 hours. And depending on how vast your music collection is, you only have to transfer your music over _once_ (and you can wipe out all those boring songs you have on a disk, and just concentrate on the good stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mp3-players/263928/30 "2004-09-11T10:34:52Z")
I’m still using my Rio Volt 250. It’s a CD based MP3 player that runs for about 12 hours on two AA rechargeables. The sound quality is impressive, and it has an inline remote that is very easy to use but not so touchy that it can get easily bumped and screw things up. It plays mp3 CBR and VBR as well as wma. It is fully compliant with mp3 tags in the display which is very clear. This is the fourth mp3 player I’ve had(second CD based). I love it. Especially for audiobooks, I can fit 15 CDs in mp3 form on two discs(192 kbps). I don’t see it as a major hardship to carry four discs with me. It gives my rewritables a purpose since I moved to data storage on DVDs. ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mp3-players/263928/31 "2004-09-11T10:36:50Z")
Right then **Eva** , here’s how it’s gonna work out. Tell your dad that you want a big fuck-off iPod jobby. When he ponies up the wonga, pop along to Best Buy and get two of the cheaper ones that are half the price but just as good. Then send the spare one to me. Just listen to your uncle Kal, love, and we’ll be well sorted. ---
**Author:** ![by-tor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/by-tor/32/266_2.png) [@by-tor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/by-tor)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mp3-players/263928/32 "2004-09-11T12:14:29Z")
Necro Romancer: the backlight pops on whenever I fool with the remote, I have it set that way. I have not run it on battery for more than 2 hours so I don’t know it’s real world capacity yet. It says it is like 36 hours or something. My guess is that that would be an overestimate by and hour or 2. It’s real easy to use, just hook it up to the usb port and you computer sees it as a second drive. Then just drag files and folders over. It is pretty killer in the feature dept. too. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mp3-players/263928/33 "2004-09-11T13:55:10Z")
You guys are cracking me up. Who’d have thought that a geeky thread on consumer electronics would turn into such a display of random flirtation and general high-spirited geekery? Silly me; for a minute, I forgot where I was. (And **Kal,** sorry to disappoint you - Dad will probably pony up some cash for my B-day, but not enough to cover the entire purchase of any of the above items, unless I am overwhelmed by all the options and buy another Discman.) Thanks for the info, all - keep it coming. BTW, Amazon is listing a 15GB iPod for $236.54 (but you have to add it to your cart to see the price). ---
**Author:** ![Sanders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sanders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sanders)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mp3-players/263928/34 "2004-09-11T14:08:18Z")
You can get a used 64 MB iRock on eBay for about $15 or $20. Mine has 64 MB, but it can be expanded to 192MB for about another $20. It’s USB and very easy to upload/download songs. Nothing like an iPod, but it sure is cheap… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mp3-players/263928.md?page=1)