Mp3 Player - Ipod, Iriver, any others?

Mr_Grinch

Ok folks, I had an Iriver H320 and it was stolen from my car. I can find another for roughly £100 and I do dearly love it (especially running rockbox on it).

I've been given £100 by my insurance company for "personal belongings" (That's the max they'd give me) and need to treat myself to a new mp3 player from that.

I know it's not a lot of money but at the moment I really can't afford to add much more to it.

So, for £100 should I go with the mp3 player I know and love, or can you recommend me a different/better model.

Videos/Pictures etc are really not important, audio is key. Gapless playback would be nice too, as would the ability to plug the device in to any computer and have it recognised straight away as an external drive.

Thanks folks.

LewieP

Probably a good idea to say what kind of storage capacity you need.

Mr_Grinch

That would be an idea. Iriver was 20gb, but anything 6gb and upwards would likely do me.

Incidentally the links for the H320 I had were rubbish, so I'ms till looking for that. THere's one on ebay, for york that ends in 4 hours. I may or may not pick it up

LewieP

it will certainly be worth considering a flash player then. There are a bunch of 8gb flash players in the £100 price range, plus it will be much smaller than a HDD player, and will have much better battery life. No idea of what models in particular to recommend though

Mr_Grinch

Anyone any suggestions? I'm used to dynamic playlist creation and gapless playback. The ability to add folders to a playlist etc.

I may try and pick up an ipod and just shove rockbox on that

enderwiggin13

I know people hate on the iPod and it is a little more expensive, but you get dynamic playlists and gapless playback with them. And with the new gen just coming out, you may be able to get a refurbed old one from Apple for a decent price.

Evander

Do they offer thew Zune over there, in the Land of Eng?

Honestly, I can't think of anything the iPod does that it doesn't, and it's also cheaper.

Plus, I've noticed a slightly better sound quality.

Mr_Grinch

I ended up getting the same MP3 player as before. The only auction on ebay.co.uk I could find for it was actually based in my city. Won it in the end for £130 and am really chuffed I essentially get my old mp3 player back

Nackmatholn

Mr_Grinch wrote: »

I ended up getting the same MP3 player as before. The only auction on ebay.co.uk I could find for it was actually based in my city. Won it in the end for £130 and am really chuffed I essentially get my old mp3 player back

Let's hope it's not the same exact one, ie the one that was stolen as that would not be cool.

mausmalone

Evander wrote: »

Do they offer thew Zune over there, in the Land of Eng?

Honestly, I can't think of anything the iPod does that it doesn't, and it's also cheaper.

Plus, I've noticed a slightly better sound quality.

Well, as stated above, gapless playback. I'm really loving my new Zune, but it's got that same almost immeasurable (but audible) gap between songs that I'm used to from good ol' winamp.

Although I must say that I'm thoroughly impressed with its sound quality. I'm hearing things in songs I hadn't heard before, even though I've been listening to this music for years. The earbuds are damned good for voices.

Pheezer

mausmalone wrote: »

Evander wrote: »

Do they offer thew Zune over there, in the Land of Eng?

Honestly, I can't think of anything the iPod does that it doesn't, and it's also cheaper.

Plus, I've noticed a slightly better sound quality.

Well, as stated above, gapless playback. I'm really loving my new Zune, but it's got that same almost immeasurable (but audible) gap between songs that I'm used to from good ol' winamp.

Also battery life.

Although I must say that I'm thoroughly impressed with its sound quality. I'm hearing things in songs I hadn't heard before, even though I've been listening to this music for years. The earbuds are damned good for voices.

I have to wonder how much of this is the DAC and how much of it is the pack-in headphones. Has anyone tried listening to both using a good pair of headphones, or better yet, tested the two players head to head for frequency response?

I wouldn't put much water in the better sound thing, to tell the truth. iPod pack-in headphones are crap and I think a lot of people are going to be comparing the two players just using the pack-ins.

Trevor

I really like my Toshiba Gigabeat, even though it seems to have completely dropped off the face of the earth. My brother is looking at getting the newer 60 gig version, but he's having trouble finding that too. That being said, if you can acquire one I've found mine to be completely satisfactory except for a somewhat wonky control cross that they have fixed on the newer version.

mausmalone

DrDizaster wrote: »

mausmalone wrote: »

Evander wrote: »

Do they offer thew Zune over there, in the Land of Eng?

Honestly, I can't think of anything the iPod does that it doesn't, and it's also cheaper.

Plus, I've noticed a slightly better sound quality.

Well, as stated above, gapless playback. I'm really loving my new Zune, but it's got that same almost immeasurable (but audible) gap between songs that I'm used to from good ol' winamp.

Also battery life.

(snip)

Are you saying the battery life is good in the Zune or bad? I've been pretty impressed with it. I've been taking it to work, watching about an hour of podcast video and then listening to it throughout the rest of the work day and on the commute without running out yet. I'm getting about 8 hours mixed audio/video. I think that's pretty darned good.

Pheezer

mausmalone wrote: »

DrDizaster wrote: »

mausmalone wrote: »

Evander wrote: »

Do they offer thew Zune over there, in the Land of Eng?

Honestly, I can't think of anything the iPod does that it doesn't, and it's also cheaper.

Plus, I've noticed a slightly better sound quality.

Well, as stated above, gapless playback. I'm really loving my new Zune, but it's got that same almost immeasurable (but audible) gap between songs that I'm used to from good ol' winamp.

Also battery life.

(snip)

Are you saying the battery life is good in the Zune or bad? I've been pretty impressed with it. I've been taking it to work, watching about an hour of podcast video and then listening to it throughout the rest of the work day and on the commute without running out yet. I'm getting about 8 hours mixed audio/video. I think that's pretty darned good.

Better on the iPods.

My 80 GB gets 20 hours of music playback.

Mr_Grinch

Nackmatholn wrote: »

Mr_Grinch wrote: »

I ended up getting the same MP3 player as before. The only auction on ebay.co.uk I could find for it was actually based in my city. Won it in the end for £130 and am really chuffed I essentially get my old mp3 player back

Let's hope it's not the same exact one, ie the one that was stolen as that would not be cool.

Yeah, this was one of the reasons I originally did a search on ebay in my area! But it's fully boxed and most of the extras (Which weren't stolen from me) are packaged up, so I know it's genuine.

If it was mine then I'm picking it up in person anyway, so I'd punch them in their face and take it. Unless they were bigger than me. Which is nearly everybody really (I'm only 5foot 5).

Evander

mausmalone wrote: »

Evander wrote: »

Do they offer thew Zune over there, in the Land of Eng?

Honestly, I can't think of anything the iPod does that it doesn't, and it's also cheaper.

Plus, I've noticed a slightly better sound quality.

Well, as stated above, gapless playback. I'm really loving my new Zune, but it's got that same almost immeasurable (but audible) gap between songs that I'm used to from good ol' winamp.

Although I must say that I'm thoroughly impressed with its sound quality. I'm hearing things in songs I hadn't heard before, even though I've been listening to this music for years. The earbuds are damned good for voices.

either its a settingthin, or your ears are far more perceptive than mine, because I actually have had a couple of times that I've gotten confused as to where one track ended and the next began (when dealing with multi-song podcasts.)

Also, Idon't think it's just the earbuds (although I have to say that I think they're thebest quality pack-ins I've ever gotten) but I also hear a better quality sound coming through when I play my Zune over the same speakers that I used to use with my pod.

imbalanced

Like always, I will recommend JetAudio (I think they're calling themselves COWON America now). They have a new 4GB flash player called the iAudio 7 that you can pick up for $150. If you prefer 8GB, that's $200. It's got 60 hours of audio playback, supports pretty much every audio format (including OGG), has FM radio tuner, voice recording, and a whole slew of EQ effects. Plus you don't need any middleware if you don't want it, the MP3 player shows up as a USB hard drive. Just drag and drop (both input AND output).

http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/iaudio/7/

LewieP

that is pretty.