MP3 players?

[Rudy]

What do others here have? I don't have one yet but, if things go better later this month or in January, I may end up with one. I won't do the apple/ipod thing, but I'm torn between the flash memory based Creative Zen X-Fi 32GB and the Zune 120GB. I'd really prefer the flash memory based players, as there are no moving parts, but the ability to carry several hundred CDs on one unit is attractive also.

Anyone here have experience with either the Zune or any Creative player?

I just got my daughter a Sansa Clip (4GB) which is now on sale on Amazon for $49 (and also at Best Buy). It's gotten great reviews, and it's a tiny clip-on player about the size of a key fob remote. Sansa's Fuze is supposed to be neat, but I have read about problems with the case separating where the headphone jack is at, making the connector lose contact. My better half is getting one as well--not sure if we're going to get her the Creative Zen Mozaic (8GB or 16GB), a Creative Zen, or maybe an 8GB Zune.

 

[Harry]

I've only been playing with these for about a year or so now. I asked Santa to get me a cheap one to play with, just to see if I liked the idea, and I did.

It was a low-cost COBY thumb-drive unit with only 256 mb of memory, but I liked its rugged outer case and straight USB connection. The low memory made it practical for only a few albums though.

I used that to experiment with various rips and codecs to see what sounded best to my not-overly-critical ears. I settled on either mp3's at 256kbps or wma files at 192 kbps. Since the wma files were smaller and my car player plays those too, I've settled on the 192 kbps setting. I know others hate anything lossy, but this is a compromise for squeezing more out of the players I'm using and getting the best sound, which I find not objectionable at all.

I later picked up two more players, both of the SANSA brand. Again, just thumb drives with a little text screen to tell me what's playing. One of these is a 4 GB, and I picked up a second one that's 2 GB for next to nothing. Between the three of these, I've got enough space to hold most of what I need.

The 4G unit houses basically all of the TJB, Sergio Mendes, and Lani Hall solo tracks, plus all of The Corrs, a lot of Carpenters and some other odds and ends that keep me happy as I'm doing my daily walking exercise.

The 2G unit houses some other artists I like, plus some more current albums that I'm still getting "used to".

The old COBY I use for quick rips of either new music or seasonal stuff for Christmas.

The nice part of all of the three I have are their use of simple AAA batteries that I don't have to worry about recharging. Maybe I'm not "green" enough, but I truly hate rechargable items. There are too many in life already to have to remember to plug in all the time!

I played with a Zune in a Target store sometime in the past year and was rather impressed with not only its graphics capabilities but it's dispay of RBDS data on the FM tuner. (That's the data that radio stations send out with song title, artist, and station ID's).

If I were in the market to upgrade, I'd seriously look at the Zune.

Like Rudy, I'm not going anywhere near anything with an Apple logo on it. I'm still not comfortable with having downloaded the three Alpert albums on Itunes!

Harry

 

[Vinylalbumcovers]

I have an 80gig iPod. I've had a few of them of various sizes over the years and I love them madly. I've never liked the idea of compressed music and with my 80gig, I don't have to worry with it. Just about everything I've got on my computer is encoded in ALAC. I've had the same iPod for about 2 years and it's performing just as well as it did the day I bought it. I've played with other MP3 players (the Zune included) and for me, they don't even come close.

I've heard a few say that they don't like the iPod and, for the life of me, I have no idea why. I've had nothing but great experiences with mine. Sometimes the popular thing really is the best (IMHO).

Ed

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I have no big quarrel with Apple, although I don't like some of what they've done, at least they've "legitimized" downloads to an extent. There's still too much illegal downloading goingon, but now you seem to hear "I got it off iTunes" just about as often as "I copied it from a friend."

I've never owned a standalone MP3 player. My car deck claims to play MP3s but it's finicky. It will play a disk for a while, then for no particular reason it won't play that disk any more. I put a lot of effort into making a comprehensive TJB disk specifially for use on that deck, and after three or four plays it just gives me an error message. So I'm done with MP3s at least until I get an ipod or a different car stereo.

I would like to get the iPod Classic. It has 120 GB (!) so if I used any compression at all, it'd probably hold just about everything I would ever need. (Then I'd probably drop it in the toilet or something.) Provided that doesn't happen, my plan is to someday get a new car stereo that plays MP3s and also will hook up to the iPod.

 

[Rudy]

I'm checking to see if the Zune does gapless playback--not all of them do. Albums with segues, or even some of my own compilations with cross-fades, would get hacked up if the player didn't have gapless. Unfortunately that's one strike against the Creative--it doesn't do gapless. MS is always updating firmware, so there are always good changes and improvements with each revision.

I support any player that lets me drag and drop files to it, without using any proprietary software. The Zune has wireless capabilities to sync it with my computer, so that's a plus. (The Creative Zen X-Fi may do this as well, but I haven't checked.)

 

[Harry]

Something I've never done is any kind of "sync"-ing between the computer and any of these players. Like Rudy, I like the non-proprietary drag and drop to move the files that I choose to the player.

Maybe I just don't "get" the whole sync thing, but it seems restrictive to me.

Harry

 

[Mike Blakesley]

So does the iPod do the gapless playback? If not that might be a deal breaker for me....I can't imagine listening to the Carpenters' A SONG FOR YOU without its segues.

 

[Rudy]

Something I've never done is any kind of "sync"-ing between the computer and any of these players. Like Rudy, I like the non-proprietary drag and drop to move the files that I choose to the player.

Maybe I just don't "get" the whole sync thing, but it seems restrictive to me.

Harry

It's not really restrictive, but could be the opposite: it could get TOO automated. Then again, I've never used them. From what I understand, it just syncs what you have on your computer with what you have on your player, and vice versa. It's like having a backup. And I think that if you put a new song or album in your program, it automatically uploads the music to your player the next time you connect it. The Zune can do this wirelessly, as can the Creative Zen X-Fi 16GB and 32GB models. (I'm sure others do--I just haven't looked at them.) But I do like ultimate control--being able to label and drag/drop files the way I want them directly should *always* be an option I can have.

 

[Harry]

See, to me that's TOO much assumption. There are things I put on my computer that I wouldn't necessarily want on my MP3 player. It seems to me that syncing would just gunk up the MP3 player with all kinds of audio junk I have on my computer.

Harry

 

[Rudy]

So does the iPod do the gapless playback? If not that might be a deal breaker for me....I can't imagine listening to the Carpenters' A SONG FOR YOU without its segues.

The ipods were notorious for not having gapless playback, but I don't know if the current generation addressed that (I believe they have). Some have dumped the built-in interface and installed Rockbox as the firmware, which turns it into a whole new player. Rockbox is available for other MP3 players as well, but not all...and it's not for the faint of heart, as it's like loading a new operating system onto a computer.

The Zune usually does gapless, but I'm told by another Zune owner that the 3.1 firmware has a bug that added a tiny gap between the songs. With the Zune, though, the new firmware often turns it into a completely new (in a good way) interface, and they're saying that the next firmware will fix the bug that crept in with 3.1.

 

[toeknee4bz]

See, to me that's TOO much assumption. There are things I put on my computer that I wouldn't necessarily want on my MP3 player. It seems to me that syncing would just gunk up the MP3 player with all kinds of audio junk I have on my computer.

Harry

I also have the 80-gig iPod, and I can promise you that this is an easy task. Each track has a box beside it for you to check or uncheck, and this tells the system whether or not to sync to the device. I currently have 7938 songs on the iPod, with 43.2 GB free space left. The computer has well over 8000 tracks. Obviously there's no way I could go through all of those tracks to check or uncheck my selections every time I sync, so it retains the memory of what I selected already. It will keep my selections applied unless or until I change them.

FYI,
Tony

 

[toeknee4bz]

So does the iPod do the gapless playback? If not that might be a deal breaker for me....I can't imagine listening to the Carpenters' A SONG FOR YOU without its segues.

The ipods were notorious for not having gapless playback, but I don't know if the current generation addressed that (I believe they have).

My iPod has the entire Carpenters' NOW AND THEN album, complete with the "Yesterday Once More" medley, in sequence and gapless. I previously only had a vinyl copy of this album, and I wanted to put a better quality copy on my iPod. Enter iTunes. It downloaded the medley without any gaps, and sounded as good as if I had ripped it off of a conventional CD, complete with track numbers in sequence. Beware, though, that each downloaded track from iTunes is .99 each, so the entire "Yesterday Once More" medley, though gapless, still costs nearly ten bucks!

There is also an option of right-clicking on each track title, selecting 'info', and checking the box titled "Gapless Album" (options yes or no), then 'apply'. Problem solved.

FYI,
Tony

 

[Rudy]

There is also an option of right-clicking on each track title, selecting 'info', and checking the box titled "Gapless Album" (options yes or no), then 'apply'. Problem solved.

FYI,
Tony

That was the option I remember hearing about--thanks!

Gapless is essential IMHO...and that Carpenters' album is a prime example. In the past, most players did not do gapless, and you had to upload an album side as a single track in order to make it play back without gaps.

I should see if my Pioneer DV45A plays back MP3 CDs gapless....

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

My first mp3 player was a Creative Zen Micro I think it was around 5 gig then I think the following yr they came out with the 6 gig that was years ago. I must have bought it when the zen micro first became popular. I used it for the first yr alot and really liked it, what I was most impressed with was the sound quality (which I think is better than the iPod) and the size..so small couldn't even feel it in your pocket and it has a removeable battery (unlike the iPod) so you can pop open the back cover and buy a new battery for long trips. I actually hadn't used it for a couple years and went looking for it to find a certain song I knew I had but couldn't find it anywhere, found it buried in a drawer, wiped off the dust, found my charger plugged it in and it started charging and actually found the song I was looking for. I was amazed that the battery was still working, I guess a testament to how well built they are and good battery life. What;s cool is when it's charging it's what they call breathing, as the blueish neon light act like it's breathing in and out kinda cool to look at.
Then I was given a 40 gig video iPod as a gift and I pretty much stopped using the Zen. I found the iPod more compatible for my every day life, I can play the iPod in my car and it shows up with all my albums and track listing on my factory navi and I can use the volume controls etc on my steering wheel, then there was the ability to download music so much easier w/ iTunes store and I don't have to give them my CC, I just buy the gift cards available at any grocery store and redeem them online throught the iTunes store, it calcs the amt you have left which is nice as you use them. I'm not one to say iPod is the best cause there are other good mp3 players out there but for me they work easier in my life for how I use them.

I have 173 videos on my iPod, of that about 12 are from purchases from the iPod store, the others are converted videos (mp4) of mostly the Carpenters through the years practically everything they did including interviews, the rest are videos (mp4) of Olivia I converted then I have some other artists as well. I use Videora to convert my videos to mp4 then upload them into the iPod, very easy to use and Videora is freeware. Almost any video that is shown on youtube is easily downloadable using real player and then you can convert it to mp4 for your ipod. A few weeks ago I had jury duty and used my video iPod in the jury pool of waiting time nearly 3 hours before my # was called. It helped pass the time.

 

[Rudy]

I'm not sure if I'd use the video features in the MP3 player, as I have so many hundreds of albums I'd like to load into it. The LPs I'd have to do needle drops for (of course), but I'd want the bulk of my CDs and downloads to be on the player. In MP3 format, the minimum I can listen to is 192kbps; I'd probably do mine at 256kbps, which cuts the storage estimate of a 120GB Zune in half (30,000 songs down to 15,000).

I do wish, though, that the more expensive players would give me an expansion slot for an SD card. I'd keep videos on the SD cards, and my music on the main player. The Creative Zen players have slots, but they do not integrate into your main album lists--you have to browse them by folders separately.