MP3 players, whom here has one?

[Hardbopjazz]

Just bought my first MP3 player today. I've never been a fan of MP3, mostly because of the lost of sound with the compression. I have always been able to hear he sound lose, mostly with cymbals. This was what kept me away.

But I am switching jobs and my soon to be former employer makes an MP3 player, so I went out and bought one before I lose that employee discount.

20 gig player and also stores and takes photos.

How many of you use it for jazz music?

Edited June 27, 2005 by Hardbopjazz

[DMP]

I'm also new to this format (got some kind of Dell gizmo as a gift), and while I could care less about listening to music through headphones, I have to admit it's quite a gadget. Took it on a long drive to the beach last week, and it sure beat taking a case full of CD's. Was able to listen to hundreds of jazz tracks in a new way. I can see why people seem to be consumed by these things.

My question is probably way too simple: what are the factors in the downloading process (I'm downloading exclusively with CD's) that can influence the sound? Does it make any difference if I download (say) some 24-bit, remastered CD as opposed to an earlier version? Is sound not really a selling point of this format?

[GregK]

I have an iRiver 256MB player I got 2 years ago. I love it. The memory is small, but it's a flash memory system, which meant it was cheaper at the time (I think you can get the 20GB iPod now for what I paid for mine!). I walk to work, so it's a great way for me to listen to music (about 25 min each way). I just copy CDs to my computer then download them to the player (256MB holds roughly 8 CDs, depending) about once a week. I will eventually upgrade to something bigger, but for now I couldn't imagine not having it! The sound is good enough; I copy the music at a low quality level so I can fit more on the player, but the loss in sound quality isn't that great. Certainly not audiophile, but acceptable.

[neveronfriday]

I've got a one Gbyte player that I'm very satisfied with. It stores more than needed and because it runs on normal small batteries (which seem to last forever), it is virtually fool proof. The sound is good (I added a very good pair of headphones and kicked the ones that came with the player into the next trash can right away). The player is very small, has a good menu system and system updates have been frequent and stable. Transferring songs is a breeze and more than fast enough via USB2.

I keep a system partition on my PC which is small enough when compressed to hold an operating system plus tools and have used the player to carry that partition with me whenever I'm asked to trouble-shoot other people's systems. Also in this respect, the player helped make life a lot easier for me.

Love it.

For my purposes, it's the optimal gadget and I often find myself wondering why anybody would want to have a 20 Gbyte (or even heftier) player. I already have problems deciding which tunes I want to play of the many I put on there. And the player can certainly store enough even for a very long trip.

[Claude]

I've had a 20GB MP3 player (iRiver H120) for the past two years, and I cannot live without it anymore. Especially since I had to travel a lot during the last months. But I also listen to music at work whenever it's possible.

Thanks to this portable player I've finally been able to start listening through those 2000+ Fantasy albums I had downloaded from emusic more than 3 years ago.

Edited June 28, 2005 by Claude

[andybleaden]

I have a 30 gb Creative Jukebox which I have to say has been the most pleasant gadget I have ever bought. Where else but in the shed , on the toilet, in the car, on my bike, on the train,on ...well you get the picture can I listen to a choice of 300+ lps...its great. The reduction in quality depends on the sampling rate in my opinion but its really really great!

Best thing, since the last best thing!

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I've been using a CD/mp3 player for years. I burn a CD-R full of mp3 files and I can listen to that single disc for almost 10 hours. I have a portable, a boombox and a DVD player. The boombox unit is great in the summer. I only need one disc for the whole day's music. The DVD unit is nice when I have a party. No need to keep swapping CDs.

Kevin

[WD45]

I have a 20 GB Neuros HD player.

This thing is super versatile. I got this one for its recording capabilities, but it turns out that I am using the thing more and more as an MP3 player. I can record in 128 and 160k .mp3, full 16 bit .wav, or in .ogg vorbis.

I have recorded several LPs for portable listening with it, and I have all of the items downloaded from emusic and iTunes on it. Not to mention all of the Dead downloaded from archive.org. I have a few tracks ripped from CDs, but they are in the minority.

I am also able to listen to full-length radio programs on it as well. My commute is about one hour door-to-door, so 59 minutes works just right.

I am hoping to get a nice powered stereo mic to resume live and field recording. The internal mic is nice, but only mono.

The thing also has AM/FM radio, plus an FM transmitter for use with any radio. All that for about $249!

[Claude]

All that for about $249!

←

So the photo is misleading!

[.:.impossible]

Now that is cool. I remember you posting something about that thing before. What microphones are you looking at for field recording? Are you a musician? Would you be able to plug that right into a soundboard? I'd assume so.

I have the 20G iPod and love it. This spring/summer, I've had the entire Atlantic Box set, plus numerous Trojan Box sets and various other R&B and Jamaican in a list on shuffle. Still have yet to hear the same song twice!

And I'm working through John B's blindfold as well!

My brother also sent me a couple of mp3 discs full of oop salsa, brazilian, bossa, etc. that he has been listening to which makes for great summer music.

I like having all that space!

[robviti]

I'm tired of lugging around my full-size cd/mp3 player when I do my three miles every morning. I plan to purchase a Creative MuVo TX FM mp3 flash player. It has an FM tuner, a USB 2.0 interface, a signal-to-noise ratio of 90 dB, runs on a AAA battery, weighs 1.1 oz, and is only 1.5" x 0.6" x 2.9". The 512mb version stores up to 8 hours (120 tracks) of music and costs only $79 at Buy.com (with a $10 off coupon).

[WD45]

All that for about $249!

←

So the photo is misleading!

←

Yeah, all you have left is a quarter when it is all said and done.

[Jim Alfredson]

I just got a new cell phone. The Audiovox SMT5600. It runs on Windows Mobile and has a version of Windows Media Player on it. I bought a 1gb mini-SD card for it, so I have quite a bit of storage. It came with some decent stereo ear-buds and it sounds really good. All that and it's a phone, camera, interfaces with Outlook for email, my calendar, my contacts, surfs the web, etc. Pretty cool.

That said, that Neuros looks REALLY cool. I'd like to get something small and portable that has an analog input so I could record a board feed, like .:.impossible was saying. Perfect for recording Organissimo gigs!

[Guy Berger]

I'm pretty happy with my iPod 20 gig. I almost never listen to CDs anymore -- only in the car and at home.

Guy

[Claude]

I got a new MP3 player yesterday. An iRiver H320

http://www.mobilityguru.com/2004/10/05/iriver/index.html

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1730994,00.asp

The best thing about it, I upgraded from my previous H120 for free. I've had it for almost 2 years, when the stop button stopped working (mechanical failure). Luckily there was still a month warranty left, I sent it to the online retailer (www.hifi-regler.de), thinking it would be an easy repair.

But iRiver thought it was simpler to sent me a replacement player, and as the H120 apparently was out of stock, they sent a H320, the later model which has a color display and more features.

Edited October 12, 2005 by Claude

[neveronfriday]

I got a new MP3 player yesterday. An iRiver H320

http://www.mobilityguru.com/2004/10/05/iriver/index.html

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1730994,00.asp

The best thing about it, I upgraded from my previous H120 for free.  I've had it for almost 2 years, when the stop button stopped working (mechanical failure). Luckily there was still a month warranty left, I sent it to the online retailer (www.hifi-regler.de), thinking it would be an easy repair.

But iRiver thought it was simpler to sent me a replacement player, and as the H120 apparently was out of stock, they sent a H320, the later model which has a color display and more features.

←

Lucky ba**ard.

P.S.: When I bought a Sony DVD player which never worked from the start, Sony insisted on repairing it (they replaced just about every part and it still didn't work). I gave up after trying to get that piece of sh*t fixed three times. Instead of suing their sorry asses I

... decided never, ever in my life to buy anything from Sony again. Never.

... trashed it

... bought a Philips top-of-the line for less which works like a charm.

Oh, do yourself a favor: never buy any Sony equipment, ever.

They suck.

[Claude]

I've heard the same thing about Philips ...

I think it is very difficult to generalize. A manufacturer can have products which are very reliable and others which often fail. My numerous Sony gadgets (3 CD players, one of them 20 years old, a DVD player, 2 PDAs, a cassette deck) have never let me down. Support quality also varies a lot according to the regional representative.

[neveronfriday]

Yep, I also have older Sony stuff that (still) works like a charm.

These past years though I've had several terrible Sony products. The DVD player was the last in a line of consumer products with declining quality (control).

If you read the forums around the Net (and I know you do ) you know that I'm not the only person complaining about this decline in quality. I think Sony has been trying to get out of that by introducing new product lines and pushing the quality factor again, but I don't think we'll see if this worked until middle of next year or so.

Philips I'm very neutral about.

Mine works.

So, ok with me.

BTW: To make such a strict decision and saying that I will NOT EVER touch Sony again is perhaps the last piece de resistance we consumers can pull out of the hat these days. I don't care if they ever improve - they've lost me as a customer because they just swallowed up too much of my money with crappy products (and HORRIBLE service on several occasions!). There's enough competition to turn to, so ... no more Sony.