Anybody here got an iPod or good mp3 player?

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Raptor65

Raptor65

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I'm seriously thinking of buying a good mp3 player. I have a crapload of tunes on my computer and i'm tired of being tied to it whenever I want to listen to music. I'd like to take those songs and put them on an mp3 player. I really think it'd be a good investment, so for those who have a good mp3 player (I want about a 20gb) share some info or advice. I don't want to spend my precious $300 only to be disappointed with a crappy player. Thanks.
 
2 min. search came up with 20GB Mp3 players but I was eyeing a 5gb iRiver H10 and 20GB Olympus M:Robe (I was looking at the 5GB)

I don't know if you know what your getting yourself into but HD players are not exactly that great. My biggest beef with them is their damn proprietary software and then the long transfer times. If you want a between player I'd go for the iRiver 5GB because it is big enough to hold enough music to keep you busy but theirs no proprietary software so you can organize it the way YOU WANT.

I'd definitly search for yourself on GTP as well as the net because there is so many places and potential good deals. Only idiots with no brains just go and pick up an iPoo.

Good Luck...
 
VIPFREAK
I don't know if you know what your getting yourself into but HD players are not exactly that great. My biggest beef with them is their damn proprietary software and then the long transfer times. If you want a between player I'd go for the iRiver 5GB because it is big enough to hold enough music to keep you busy but theirs no proprietary software so you can organize it the way YOU WANT.

I'd definitly search for yourself on GTP as well as the net because there is so many places and potential good deals. Only idiots with no brains just go and pick up an iPoo.
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My 20 gig "iPoo" was $199 + $30 for a set of Sony MDR-71s. It holds all the music I own and takes about 3 minutes to completely replace all the music on it, and I can arrange the music any way I want. I'm not saying it's the only thing around - there are plenty of great alternatives out there - but I think the speed, ease of use, build, and sound quality of my iPod hardly make me an idiot with no brains for buying it.
 
VIPFREAK
Only idiots with no brains just go and pick up an iPoo.
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Oops, I lost my brain, could you find it for me?

Oh hey, Duke, Christiaan, and Giles also lost their brains – looks like we need a whole search party!

Raptor65 – iPods are on the more expensive side, but for that you get a very streamlined interface (using an iPod is delightfully easy, and syncing between one and iTunes takes no energy whatsoever) and great quality – they're purposely designed so that nothing will break off (you'll notice that nothing protrudes and that the wheel is touch-sensitive). And I use mine as a backup HD and for file transfers, so it's an even greater value! :D

Oh, and, you asked at just the right time, because just yesterday Apple updated the iPod line so that the regular iPod now has a color screen (in other words, the iPod and iPod photo line are one now).
 
iPods are wonderful in my opinion. I didn't buy one because i'm a child, or because i'm in some fad, but because for the price of a 4gb iPod mini, the only other mp3 jukeboxes i could find either looked like a cheap copy, and was, or didn't have the storage i needed.
iPods are simple to use, and are a great design.I use mine everyday, and don't know what i'd do without it. I also think that nothing quite has the same feel as an iPod, maybe it's just me, but i wouldn't be able to get used to an iriver or something else. I think it's the font ...

Anyway, i recommend the ipod mini 4gb, if you want to listen to quite a bit of music, but don't need space for 1000+ songs.
 
Don't buy an iPod, I bought one and I wish I hadnt........they are just a fashion statment and now everyone has one....there are so many better players on the market.......I would recommend SONY's ones like the HD3........they are smaller, lighter, have massive battery life and are high quality.
 
amp88
Personally, I wouldn't go for an iPod. IMO, there are a few reasons people buy iPods:

- They're a child
- They think the unit looks cool and care more about looks than the player
- They have too much money
- They want to be involved in a fad

Creative Zen Touch 20GB

Archos Gmini 20GB

Samsung 20GB

For less than a 6GB iPod Mini
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Your post is so full of bull****, even an Argentinian ranch can't produce so much in 10 years. You're obviously a blatant iPod hater, no matter what.

Yes the marketing image of iPods is gayer than elton john sharing a bath tub with liberace, but fact is that it is a very good music player. It has nothing to do with being a child.

I'm 22, am on a 10k student loan already and I have an iPod 20Gb myself and I didn't buy it for the image or the looks. I carry it in an ugly cover all the time. Point is that the simplicity make it great to navigate from song to song. The sound is good and iTunes is a good program. (unlike the crappy program sony came up with) Not to mention even though expensive many accessoiries are available.

Sure it isn't the perfect player, and if I'd have to buy one right now I probably wouldn't have bought one either, but I definitely wouldn't buy one of the pieces of crap you listed here. I probably would have bought an iRiver, which is even more expensive than an Apple. Now my rant is done.
 
Sage
iPods are on the more expensive side, but for that you get a very streamlined interface (using an iPod is delightfully easy, and syncing between one and iTunes takes no energy whatsoever)
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Only thing it has going for it. I can find my way around my iRiver without looking at the LCD. Additionally, synchronizing my music collection is as simple as clicking copy and paste. Let's see you do THAT!

Personally, I was never a fan of iTunes. It was always a pain in the butt for me when I had the iPoo and I didn't appreciate the fact that iTunes went in and added data to the ID3 tags of all my mp3s without informing me.

and great quality – they're purposely designed so that nothing will break off (you'll notice that nothing protrudes and that the wheel is touch-sensitive).
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👍 iRiver, Creative and just about everyone else does a great job at it too :)[/quote]

And I use mine as a backup HD and for file transfers, so it's an even greater value! :D
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That's 95% of all the mp3 players on the market ;)

Oh, and, you asked at just the right time, because just yesterday Apple updated the iPod line so that the regular iPod now has a color screen (in other words, the iPod and iPod photo line are one now).
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All of the iRiver hdd players have color, Samsung's got an hdd player coming up with color.

The iRiver has a vastly superior battery life and costs the same. The Creative's battery life is just jawdropping (24hrs with the Zen Touch) but lacks a color screen... then again, Creative has industry leading sound quality and the player is MUCH cheaper than the iPoo. iRiver comes in at a close second.

Almost every other player on the market comes with voice recorder and a radio tuner. Apple has NO additional features on the player. You have to spend an extra $50+ (cnd) per bulky add on. Add in the terrible battery life which only recently got bumped to a rated 12 hours. I had a 3rd gen....it averaged 4 hours on mostly 192kbit mp3s back when it was new - compare that to the rated 8. My iRiver averages 9-10 hours on 192kbit mp3 and VBR a year after I bought it, 12 when it was new. Not bad considering it was rated at 16 hours.

To recap - iPoo is expensive, trend whore material (sorry, but it is), has no features to speak of, has a piss poor battery life, expensive as hell accessories, not so great sound quality (I found bass to be horribly muted on them and EQ only made it muddy)

So tell me... WHY would any intelligent consumer buy an iPod? They wouldn't. It's an impulse buy made for the image it conveys.
 
Actually to tell you the truth I can't think of anyone over the age of 18 that has an iPod. There are better ones on the market for factions of the cost. iPods are like Nike shoes, they are a fad and far behind other companies.
 
VIPFREAK
My biggest beef with them is their damn proprietary software and then the long transfer times.
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There are custom made programs, which are better than the ones that come with it, and if you get USB 2.0 it will be fast. I can upload a cd to my iPod in about 10 seconds. The ripping process of the cd, that is the time consuming part, the bottleneck is your cd-rom / dvd-rom drive speed.
 
smellysocks12
Your post is so full of bull****, even an Argentinian ranch can't produce so much in 10 years. You're obviously a blatant iPod hater, no matter what.
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Everyone's entitled to their opinion ;)

Nope, I'm not an iPod hater, I just view iPods as being pretty low value-for-money.

smellysocks12
Yes the marketing image of iPods is gayer than elton john sharing a bath tub with liberace, but fact is that it is a very good music player. It has nothing to do with being a child.
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I never said anything about the marketing of the iPod. I have a few young cousins and they all want iPods. Their friends all want iPods too. A lot of children want iPods.


smellysocks12
I'm 22, am on a 10k student loan already and I have an iPod 20Gb myself and I didn't buy it for the image or the looks. I carry it in an ugly cover all the time. Point is that the simplicity make it great to navigate from song to song. The sound is good and iTunes is a good program. (unlike the crappy program sony came up with) Not to mention even though expensive many accessoiries are available.
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Fair enough. A lot of players make it easy to navigate from song to song though (most even have a "Next Track" button on them :)
Yep, the sound quality of the iPod is good, no disagreement from me there.
Personally, I don't like iTunes, I think the interface is pretty poor, and when I had it a while ago, it was a resource hog on my PC. Perhaps it's improved lately. I'd prefer not to need to use a piece of software to access the player, aside from the OS that is. Availability of accessories wasn't mentioned in the first post and, again personally, I don't really value pieces of cheap, tacky plastic as being advantages to something (and then there's the accessories j/k).


smellysocks12
Sure it isn't the perfect player, and if I'd have to buy one right now I probably wouldn't have bought one either
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Good to see we agree on something


smellysocks12
I definitely wouldn't buy one of the pieces of crap you listed here
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I just went to newegg and did a simple search for 20 gig mp3 players, I wasn't saying I would buy one of those. It was simply an exercise to show what you can get for less than the price of an iPod mini


smellysocks12
I probably would have bought an iRiver, which is even more expensive than an Apple. Now my rant is done.
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I've heard good things about the iRiver, but I've never looked into it much myself
 
smellysocks12
There are custom made programs, which are better than the ones that come with it, and if you get USB 2.0 it will be fast. I can upload a cd to my iPod in about 10 seconds. The ripping process of the cd, that is the time consuming part, the bottleneck is your cd-rom / dvd-rom drive speed.
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Usually CPU speed is the bottleneck in the ripping process, unless you either have an incredibly fast CPU or an incredibly slow optical drive
 
amp88
Everyone's entitled to their opinion ;)
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Yeah, but the arguments you listed against the iPod were mostly about the image, not about the player itself.

amp88
Nope, I'm not an iPod hater, I just view iPods as being pretty low value-for-money.
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The iPod isn't that expensive anymore and it is a good player. The iPod photo and iPod mini's have a pretty bad value / price ratio but especially the iPod mini's are well built when compared to the competitors. I'll agree with you that an iPod photo is a waste of money.

amp88
I never said anything about the marketing of the iPod. I have a few young cousins and they all want iPods. Their friends all want iPods too. A lot of children want iPods.
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That's probably because iPod is the most established brand name, which both because of heavy marketing and good experiences from users.

amp88
Fair enough. A lot of players make it easy to navigate from song to song though (most even have a "Next Track" button on them :)
Yep, the sound quality of the iPod is good, no disagreement from me there.
Personally, I don't like iTunes, I think the interface is pretty poor, and when I had it a while ago, it was a resource hog on my PC. Perhaps it's improved lately. I'd prefer not to need to use a piece of software to access the player, aside from the OS that is. Availability of accessories wasn't mentioned in the first post and, again personally, I don't really value pieces of cheap, tacky plastic as being advantages to something (and then there's the accessories j/k).
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iPods also have a next track button on it. I don't have a problem with iTunes, just switch off auto-sync and it's perfect. If you don't like iTunes your settings should be changed. I didn't run into memory problems, to me it's just as good as drop and drag from explorer. With accessories I didn't just mean the iSkin (which is the ugly cover I referred to earlier), but also speaker sets, battery packs etc.

amp88
I just went to newegg and did a simple search for 20 gig mp3 players, I wasn't saying I would buy one of those. It was simply an exercise to show what you can get for less than the price of an iPod mini
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True, but 1" hard discs simply are expensive and iPod mini's are for example more robust than a Zen Micro, which might also explain the slightly higher price. Cheaper isn't always the better choice. Not that I'd buy a mini though, that's why I decided to spend $50 extra and get a large one.

amp88
I've heard good things about the iRiver, but I've never looked into it much myself
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iRiver probably makes the best players out there, but I heard their customer support is crap. When it works it's great, once it broke down you're screwed and without any help.
 
Yeah, but the arguments you listed against the iPod were mostly about the image, not about the player itself.
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It is about image, if you have an MP3 player people will automatically ask "You have an iPod?" When I pull out mine there is no question that it isn't an iPod, though. iPods are a fashion statment, plain an simple.
 
BlazinXtreme
It is about image, if you have an MP3 player people will automatically ask "You have an iPod?" When I pull out mine there is no question that it isn't an iPod, though. iPods are a fashion statment, plain an simple.
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No, people usually ask whether you have an iPod because apple came out long before their competitors came up with hard drive based mp3 players. Really, even almost a year ago when I bought my 4th generation iPod there weren't any decent competitors. Only recently the market is starting to flourish. Even crappy Zens (yes, back then they were crappier than they are now) were more expensive than iPods over here. So back then my decission for an iPod was easily made (and iRivers were good, but beyond my budget).


iPod is a common word now mostly because it came out first. Just like portable cassette players are still called "walkman"... which is a brand name owned by Sony. It isn't any different with iPods. Or is "walkman" suddenly also a fashion statement?
 
When walkmans came out they were a fashion statement thats for sure. iPods are a fad, and really not one is better then the other. They all play MP3 music files don't they? They are different when in comes to hard drive size and design.

I have a SanDisk CruzMicro Companion which I just put my 512mb Cruz Micro in...total cost 150 bucks after buying it with the thumbdrive off eBay.
 
I was thinking about buying an MP3 player myself. The most important things to me are:

-Battery Life
-Sound Quality
-Price

I don´t really care about the storage space, anything above 512mb is fine to me. Colorful displays are not on my priority list also.

So I was thinking about getting an Ipod Shuffle, because it´s not expensive and it has enough space for me. But, does it have good sound quality and battery life? Is there any other MP3 player around that price with the same quality?
 
BlazinXtreme
iPods are a fad, and really not one is better then the other. They all play MP3 music files don't they?
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That is like saying "not one computer is better than the other, they all show something on a screen".
 
Not really since all MP3's do is play the music you put on there, I looked at a lot of players before I went with mine. The iPod didn't live up to the 300 buck cost. Mine does the same thing the iPod does with out a fancy look.
 
FatAssBR
So I was thinking about getting an Ipod Shuffle, because it´s not expensive and it has enough space for me. But, does it have good sound quality and battery life? Is there any other MP3 player around that price with the same quality?
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iPod Shuffles are good in every way, the only downside of them is that they don't have a display at all. If that bothers you, you'd be better off looking for another player. I don't think the sound quality is any worse than the quality of a $500 iPod photo. If you really want the best sound quality you should also get a new pair of headphones with it, but that's with any brand.
 
BlazinXtreme
Not really since all MP3's do is play the music you put on there, I looked at a lot of players before I went with mine. The iPod didn't live up to the 300 buck cost. Mine does the same thing the iPod does with out a fancy look.
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Well there is difference in sound quality, I don't know how yours sounds but saying that they all play music files doesn't change anything. Also iPods are known to be easy to navigate, but again, I don't know how yours works.

The ONLY real problem I have with iPods is that they don't come with a standard remote on the headphones.
 
I threw the head phones it came with since I use my noise canceling Bose headphones. I can find music fine with it, it works for me.
 
Lack of a display doesn´t bother me at all. I know my music, and I always listen to it on shuffle anyway. I was just looking on Apple´s website, it says the Ipod Shuffle can play up to 12 hours of music. Not that much really, but I guess it´s fine for what I need.

Maybe I´ll buy one soon then.
 
Get this (Nomad Zen xtra)

zenxtrahax19rl.jpg
 

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