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johnfindlay
New member
i dont need bells & whistles just something that work qwik so i can out the door
and have a qwik listen-any opinions??
JF
and have a qwik listen-any opinions??
JF
sile2001
_|_
DON'T get an Archos Jukebox. I'm borrowing one from a friend while comparing it to my 40gb 4th gen iPod, and the iPod wins hands down. Much better menu system, much more ergonomic. Another friend has the iRiver 300 (I think it's the 300) and it does a decent job, although it has a very long startup time.
K
Kid Downunder
New member
johnfindlay said:
Get a Mini-Disk...they go for next to nothing on Ebay these days and they sound quality AD\DA is far superior to any of the ipods. They are truely small and light weight too, I saw an IPOD and said, you gotta be joking they are heavy...You can squeez 4x LP's on to the disks and transfer at around 32x across USB. If you think having room for 10,000x songs is overkill, get an MINI DISK a pack of disks.....and your away for under $100...you can record on them too...
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jjmanton2
New member
get a Creative Nomad Zen touch thing. My brother has one, and its truly amazing, and costs less than an Ipod mini, with 5x the storage. It even has the touch scroll thing.
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johnfindlay
New member
thanx for the input gents!
jf
jf
Dracon
New member
Alternative for sure! iPod may look cool, and stuff but it's still a HD.johnfindlay said:
Are you going to exercise with it or not? How, much storage do you want?
I looked at all the options and ended up buying the Rio Sport (It only comes in Army Green). It comes with just 128MB of Memory but you can upgrade with a Memory card upto 1Gig of Memory.
Now I don't know how long you plan on listening, and if you are also trying to do other stuff. I use my to go out running, and work out all the time. It's awsome.
If you do go with the Rio, get a good set of headsets 'cause they ones that come with it suck. The only reason I went with Rio is 'cause I needed something that would not skip, I could add memory to it, and was small.
The Rio also has the AM/FM thing, a watch, and a stop watch. I've never used the radio, but I don't think the reception is too good.
turnitdown
$10 PayPal=Your Ad Here!!
Hate to confuse you, but I just went through this... 
After MUCH comparison and research, I got a 20 GB iPod ($269/Apple store, "educational" discount) for me, and a 512Mb Creative Muvo TX FM for the kid. ($119/eBay)
She works out, and is clumsy... no iPod for her, they are fragile, larger, more $$, shorter battery life.
BUT, I have never owned Apple stuff before, and I am impressed with the ergonomics and functionality of the iPod. Great customer service too, when I had to change method of payment. (Amex Blue doubles the warranty...)
You may want to consider the the size of the user community and accessory options available to the iPod.
The cosmetics are fugly to me, it looks like a kitchen appliance, but you need a case anyway. I went w/ a black rubber case. Now it's easier to hold, protected and looks like an 'Anti-Pod"
Battery life is about 14 hours, and takes 2 to charge to alomst full.
For more info, see ipodlounge.com
I dig my iPod, I have 240 CD's on it, and use the rest of the drive as an external hard drive under Windows XP.
I also got the iTrip FM transmitter.
I'm sure there are others out there too, but I am impressed w/ my iPod. It's a nice pice. Well worth the $40-$50 extra compared to similar products.
Good luck...
After MUCH comparison and research, I got a 20 GB iPod ($269/Apple store, "educational" discount) for me, and a 512Mb Creative Muvo TX FM for the kid. ($119/eBay)
She works out, and is clumsy... no iPod for her, they are fragile, larger, more $$, shorter battery life.
BUT, I have never owned Apple stuff before, and I am impressed with the ergonomics and functionality of the iPod. Great customer service too, when I had to change method of payment. (Amex Blue doubles the warranty...)
You may want to consider the the size of the user community and accessory options available to the iPod.
The cosmetics are fugly to me, it looks like a kitchen appliance, but you need a case anyway. I went w/ a black rubber case. Now it's easier to hold, protected and looks like an 'Anti-Pod"
Battery life is about 14 hours, and takes 2 to charge to alomst full.
For more info, see ipodlounge.com
I dig my iPod, I have 240 CD's on it, and use the rest of the drive as an external hard drive under Windows XP.
I also got the iTrip FM transmitter.
I'm sure there are others out there too, but I am impressed w/ my iPod. It's a nice pice. Well worth the $40-$50 extra compared to similar products.
Good luck...
M
mishagolin
Member
iPod vs. everything else
ok, well we're all musicians of some sort here so i hope we can understand this. All mp3 players use lossy compression schemes for the audio. That means the mp3s will never sound as good as your CD. They've gone through a lot to make the algorithms quite good for compressing the audio. But its still noticeable. The AAC files that can be played on an iPod are much better quality than mp3s. AAC uses a newer, more advanced algorithm to compress the files. There is still a noticeable quality loss but it is a lot better than an mp3. Thats why i'd go with an iPod.
another option is the iRiver. I haven't tried one but they are supposed to be pretty good. The iRiver doesn't require any proprietary software to run. But it also doesn't play AAC files. Of the harddrive players this is the only one i would compare to an iPod. All the others have problems with support or ergonomics.
The other option is the flash memory players. They are a lot cheaper but they hold a lot less memory. After buying a new memory card its almost worth just spending the extra $50 and getting an iPod mini. the mini will have 4x the capacity. Flash memory players are good because they don't skip and you won't crash the harddrive by dropping it. The tradeoff is capacity.
ok, well we're all musicians of some sort here so i hope we can understand this. All mp3 players use lossy compression schemes for the audio. That means the mp3s will never sound as good as your CD. They've gone through a lot to make the algorithms quite good for compressing the audio. But its still noticeable. The AAC files that can be played on an iPod are much better quality than mp3s. AAC uses a newer, more advanced algorithm to compress the files. There is still a noticeable quality loss but it is a lot better than an mp3. Thats why i'd go with an iPod.
another option is the iRiver. I haven't tried one but they are supposed to be pretty good. The iRiver doesn't require any proprietary software to run. But it also doesn't play AAC files. Of the harddrive players this is the only one i would compare to an iPod. All the others have problems with support or ergonomics.
The other option is the flash memory players. They are a lot cheaper but they hold a lot less memory. After buying a new memory card its almost worth just spending the extra $50 and getting an iPod mini. the mini will have 4x the capacity. Flash memory players are good because they don't skip and you won't crash the harddrive by dropping it. The tradeoff is capacity.
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photoresistor
New member
i cannot vouch for this personally or to whether its true or not but ive heard that the creative zen touch has better sound quality than the ipod...
G
geet73
OMG!
I bought the 40gb Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra. I love this thing. I also got an extra $70 off of it. My friend works at Best Buy.
I got it for $193. Sure, it's not as cute as the iPod.. but for half the price.. Fuck the iPod.
I got it for $193. Sure, it's not as cute as the iPod.. but for half the price.. Fuck the iPod.
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johnfindlay
New member
im gonna check out the convenience factor re: mini disc player-if they're so much better in sound quality i cant see what all the hype is about over all these MP3 players-Apple does have great marketing no doubt.... others follow....
The sound quality isnt a huge issue for me-this is for when Im on the move...
great feedback once again.
thanx.
JF
The sound quality isnt a huge issue for me-this is for when Im on the move...
great feedback once again.
thanx.
JF
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gordone
Well-known member
I have the Dell DJ (1st Generation) 20 GBs, great sound, I have almost 350 CDs on it, all encoded into 128kbs WMA. I would think the minidisc would be a bit better than just a CD player, but you would still have to be switching discs out to listen to different stuff.
With the HD based player, you have ALL of your music on it at ALL times, so I can go from listening to some Rush and then immediatelty switch over to Les Miserables if I so desire. I have a cassette adapter to listen in my car.
I would go with a HDD player (doesn't have to be the iPod)
With the HD based player, you have ALL of your music on it at ALL times, so I can go from listening to some Rush and then immediatelty switch over to Les Miserables if I so desire. I have a cassette adapter to listen in my car.
I would go with a HDD player (doesn't have to be the iPod)
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johnfindlay
New member
ya I guess thats the whole point of the digital medium-not having to lug around
reels discs tapes etc.
i probably will want both -the HDD for cruising abd a mini disc player for testing mixes around the house or at friends/studios etc.
tx
jf
reels discs tapes etc.
i probably will want both -the HDD for cruising abd a mini disc player for testing mixes around the house or at friends/studios etc.
tx
jf
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gordone
Well-known member
You should be able to test mixes with your HDD player. I know the DJ can pay Wav files, just send the test mixes over to the HDD player (as you would anyother music) and bring the HDD player to your car, friend's house, wherever.
johnfindlay said:
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johnfindlay
New member
ahhhh -thats good news- I wonder if it'll play 24/48k?'
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gordone
Well-known member
Not sure about that, but if you're testing mixes, won't you want to test exactly what would go on the CD? (i.e 16-bit, 44.1khz)
Good luck!
Good luck!
johnfindlay said:
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johnfindlay
New member
for now thats true[looking towards the days of DVA or SCD]
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johnfindlay
New member
for all you guys that own any of these portable devices can you use the headphone out as a stereo out to an amp/mixer etc.???
the dell looks nice!
the dell looks nice!
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gordone
Well-known member
Yep! I plug my Dell into my Home Theater system using a 1/8"->2 rcas from the Dell's headphone out (it's only output) into an aux input on my receiver. It sounds pretty good to me. You'll have to fiddle with the volume on the two units to get a good sound.
johnfindlay said:
Ricklh
New member
I've been seriously considering the Creative Zen Touch - 20 gb for $249.00 and I've read that's it's got pretty decent sound for MP3. However, over on another forum, someone posted that it might be good to wait a little bit and see what comes down the pike - Creative is introducing a new line of "iPod killers" at CES this week.