MP3 Player Recommendations?

[packetjunkie]

I bought one of the new Nike players for my wife to use while she works out. $199 + $40 for the warrenty. After figuring out all the cords (base unit connected to a middle device used to control the base and the headphones plug into the middle device - kinda clunky). Anyways, wife gets to gym, but cant hear music over background noise. Not much of a "Sport MP3 player" from Nike. Took it back for a refund.

So, anyone know a good MP3 player that is compact, easy to use and has good sound?

[jcaspar1]

The iPod is the only way to go! 5 gig memory (about 1250 songs!), 10 hr lithum polymer battery, Firewire download takes 10 seconds per CD!
Nothing else is close. I have one on order.....

[Steve 00RT/10]

There is a new player out by a company called e.Digital---the MXP100 The neat thing about it is that it has voice recognition--You tell it which song you want to hear. No fumbling around while walking or jogging. From what I've read it works quite well and the sound quality is very good. It is also a voice recorder capable of taking a day's worth of lectures or whatever. It uses a removable IBM 340 MB Microdrive with the option of buying a 515 MB or 1 gig removable Microdrive. It has the capability of creating 100 folders with a 100 tracks in each folder. The same media can be used in other Microdrive compatible devices like digital cameras, PDA's, or even car audio systems. It is upgradeable to new formats as they become available. The lithium battery is good for up to 15 hours of playback before recharging. Lucent's voice recognition and Texas Instruments(DSP) technology are also in this piece. I am seriously considering one for XMAS for my son. These are just out this month. You can check it out at www.edig.com

Steve

[Steve 00RT/10]

Jim,
Isn't the IBM microdrive a type of laptop drive?(shockproof as well) I believe there will be juke box units out there with this technology with up to 20 gig capacity. However, they will be larger in size. Are the 6 and 8 gig pieces you refer to 'wearable' The unit I'm thinking about is quite small. Size is definitely a consideration for exercise. The Flashwire feature is an advantage for the Ipod. Ipods will only work with Macs. I'm sure most of the others will forge ahead in this file transfer area if a good market takes hold for these next generation players.

Steve

[Steve 00RT/10]

Sorry Jon--I guess I focused on the JM and my brain thought Jim.
I'm kinda of new to this stuff with the players. The one I was looking at sells on the web for $339 with the 340MB Microdrive and $449 with the 1 gig drive. Like everything with technology, I'm sure the prices will start to fall. You can also get it w/o memory for $179. I guess that would be for people who may already have the Microdrive from some other device. I do like the voice recognition feature it offers.
Steve

[SapphireGTS]

I have the new RCA unit It takes CF flash cards (microdrives too)

So with a 1 gig microdrive it runs pretty well. ITS REALLY LOUD! Thats why I got it. My rio 300 didnt get very loud.

[Y2K5SRT]

I had this same dilemma for my son. He asked for a good MP3 player which can store a lot of music. We bought him a nifty Sony MP3 player a couple years ago (about the size of a Montblanc pen), but it only stores 64MB of music. As we are trying to keep things inexpensive this holiday season (still job hunting), I was thrilled when I came across the Nex II on eBay. One of their major retailers had them for $89.00, with no memory. I then went hunting for storage. I found a gentleman that had several 340MB IBM microdrives for $110 each. They had been used once and then the company upgraded to larger microdrives. I figured for a grand total of $199 I did pretty darn good. He can always upgrade to the 1GB microdrive as well. I am not sure that this player would be great at the gym, as one review said that "it doesn't get quite as loud as some heavy rockers would prefer." I do know that by changing out the headphones on ANY of these players you can drastically improve the sound and block out ambient noise. We use Aiwa headphones on the Sony player and I regularly listen to it while I mow the lawn. Sounds great!

Oh, and one thing to consider is SDMI compliancy. All the major brand players like Sony, Diamond, Creative, Phillips, Panasonic, and others are SDMI compliant. Listings of these products describe SDMI as way to ensure "listeners play secure music" or describe it as a means to "download secure tracks from all the major music labels." Because SDMI prints a digital watermark on MP3 files and thus verifying the legitimacy of the ownership, you will be forced to convert your current MP3 collection to a separate, SDMI-compliant MP3 file. When I went to Best Buy, the salesman said he didn't like ANY of the new players for exactly that reason: "You will not be able to play your downloaded songs from Napster, etc. You will have to pay to download from music labels instead. That sucks." Is this true or just hype? I honestly don't know. Still, the Nex II is not SDMI compliant and will play anything and everything. I figured I would go that route just to be safe.

Good luck in your search!

Chris

[Tom Friend]

I too am looking for a new MP3 player, and "loud" is not as important as using CF memory (I have lots of those for my camera), and WMA support.

Gary- what is this RCA unit you've got? Anoyone else know of a player that fits my bill?

[Y2K5SRT]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Tom Friend:
I too am looking for a new MP3 player, and "loud" is not as important as using CF memory (I have lots of those for my camera), and WMA support. Anyone else know of a player that fits my bill?
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I will let you know I like the Nex II when it arrives later this week. The reviews have been excellent and the fact it uses CF memory was the clincher. It also supports just about every music format, including MP3 and WMA. I liked that it reads ID3 tags as well - the song names will read on the display just as they do on your computer.

I got mine on eBay for $89 without the memory. This guy has a LOT of them for sale (obviously a dealer). Here is one that is currently on auction and has a lot of great information about the player, including user and professional reviews. Be sure to check the sellers other auctions and you should be able to snag one for $89 like I did.

Hope this helps!

Chris

[Y2K5SRT]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Y2KGTS:
I will let you know I like the Nex II when it arrives later this week. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It arrived yesterday and I got a chance to play with it a bit today. Overall, I am very impressed for what you get for the money. The sound was very good and it was very easy to set up. It sets up just like another drive on the computer, so you can very easily transfer MP3 and WMA files to and from the player. I did it in Windows Explorer - you don't even need any media player to move it. You can also edit the song names very easily, and because it recognize ID tags, they always show up. The information displayed during playback is the best I have seen. It is also easy to tell how much memory you have left. I am using a 340MB Microdrive (usually $75-110 on eBay) and should be able to get around 100 tunes on it. As it is a gift for my son, he can pony up for the 1GB Microdrive if he wants to get as many as 300 songs on there.

My only complaint thus far is the relative slow transfer speed from PC to player. I believe this is due to the USB connection itself. It's quicker than the Sony player, but still not as fast as I had hoped (about 60 seconds to transfer a song). I found an internal IDE drive for Compact Flash and Microdrives on eBay for $19.95 brand new. Once installed on the PC, that should cut that transfer rate down substantially (hoping for around 2-5 seconds total transfer time per song).

Fun stuff!

Chris