MP3 Players

[straycat]

He is refering to these .........

Not really.

Again - I would urge anyone that is considering Apple (or any other brand), and is concerned about reliability, to do their own research to be absolutely sure, and not pay too much attention to hearsay (either positive or negative)

[Lee Bartholomew]

I don't doubt that many work for years without problem, others suffer things like bad software (alarms being the latest one), early death of batterys and cracked screen.

And of course, all phones etc have their problems. There is no perfect phone or mp3 player out there and I doubt there ever will be

Many people will buy Apple stuff as long as they sell products without problem. Many would never touch one again.

Agreed though, do your own research in to it (and dont just read the first 2 links in google or watch the very very biased Gadget show )

[marcusj]

Depends what you're after.

I've not an older Nano which I love because of the click wheel and it's size, but for serious listening I have a 32GB Creative Zen X-Fi 2 which sounds amazing with my ultra expensive Sennheiser IE8 earbuds.The Zen is also touch screen but no where as easy to use as a Touch. It can be bought direct for around £140.

I've not tried their players but Cowon are reputed to provide the best sound quality.

[whitetiger1518]

Got a Creative Zen 2 years ago. Still working fine. I don't download a lot of music, (too many tracks uploaded from CDs) but got recomended Amazon's downloads as some of the best value for money that work with any make of MP3 player.

Cheers WT

[geoff332]

A few random comments...

The purpose really matters. If you are going to use them for anything other than walking around (or sitting down), make sure you get a solid-state drive. These are actually more common these days, so it shouldn't be a big problem (all the iPods, except the classic, are solid-state).

If you don't already have them, buy new headphones. If you want to keep it relatively cheap, I'd get the Sennheiser CX300 for around £20; but you can spend a lot more. This is the biggest upgrade you can make to any portable player.

For sound quality, the iPod and Creative are generally the best rated - some of the Samsung's are up there too; but all of them come with sub-standard headphones (you really need good headphones to notice the difference in the source quality). In terms of usability, the iPod is generally considered the best, but not everyone likes the Apple interface.

For software, I avoid iTunes (the DRM, the fact it doesn't properly support high quality audio like FLAC, and the bloat makes it a no-go for me). I use a pay version of media monkey, which will rip CDs into FLAC and automatically convert all the (non-DRM) formats to appropriate files for use in an MP3 player when synching. There are plenty of options for music library software out there.

[Goose]

For software, I avoid iTunes (the DRM, the fact it doesn't properly support high quality audio like FLAC, and the bloat makes it a no-go for me). I use a pay version of media monkey, which will rip CDs into FLAC and automatically convert all the (non-DRM) formats to appropriate files for use in an MP3 player when synching. There are plenty of options for music library software out there.

ITunes no longer does DRM - most tracks are vanilla mp3. Also, you can rip to Apple lossless if you feel you can hear the difference in quality...

[geoff332]

ITunes no longer does DRM - most tracks are vanilla mp3.

It wasn't when I made that decision.

Also, you can rip to Apple lossless if you feel you can hear the difference in quality...

Why would I convert to a far more restricted format that's closed and proprietary? Have a search for non-iPod media players that support ALAC vs FLAC. Support for ALAC depends on Apple licensing the codec - and Apple have a long, proud history of making arbitrary decisions to withdraw support for things. As for hearing the difference, that's one issue (and on decent equipment and tracks with a reasonable dynamic range, it's quite easy to hear what MP3 takes out of music). The other is if I archive a CD, I want to be able to restore the music, bit-perfect.

Oh, and I forgot... ALAC ripping doesn't include error checking. So any source read errors get archived. Using something more robust like EAC means you can ensure you have a bit-perfect rip every time.

[Goose]

iTunes does include error checking - just make sure the box is checked:

http://flic.kr/p/98vbj3

I don't really understand the fuss about iTunes - I mean you can use other programs to load music to your ipod, but it's not that bad (at least on a Mac)

Also, I've always ripped music from CD so avoided DRM entirely. I mean God help you if you ever bought 'Plays for sure' music... If you buy from Amazon mp3 for instance, you can of course import to iTunes.

Oh, and on codecs if you can tell the difference between a CD and an mp3 ripped at 192kbs you must have dog like hearing.

[geoff332]

Oh, and on codecs if you can tell the difference between a CD and an mp3 ripped at 192kbs you must have dog like hearing.

No, just decent hearing, decent equipment, decent recordings and familiarity with what music should sound like. Every component in the system effects the sound quality and if your source is less than ideal, you simply can't do anything about it.

As for the Apple error checking, it's pretty rubbish. It does error correction (which is a different thing; even that, it doesn't do this as well as EAC). Again, I'm looking to properly archive music when I rip it, so making sure it's a perfect rip.

iTunes is really a music library and it ties you into the Mac/iOS eco-system. Outside of that system, it's adequate if you accept the limitations, but that's as far as I'd go with it. I don't accept the limitations.

[jivecat]

bloat......codecs......flac......monkey......vanil la.........lossless.......alac.........bit-perfect.........eco-system.

I was keeping up fairly well until about Post #24 but now I'm lost!

[Lee Bartholomew]

not had a go on one of these but they have been getting good reviews in the magazines etc. http://www.philips.co.uk/c/mp3-and-m...mus32s_02/prd/

[jivecat]

Jivecat don't worry too much. If you don't want/need an Apple device you can still get your music out from itunes. You need to have a look in itunes to see what type of file it is. This can be done in itunes by right clicking up in the "headers" bit where Artist, Song Title etc. are. There is an option to have a "Kind" column, this column will give you an idea of which tracks are protected and which aren't as only some older ACC files are protected, one's bought in the last year or two from itunes will not be protected and can be transferred/converted to whatever format your new player will handle.
"AAC Protected" means just that, it will only play on an authorised computer/apple device BUT most older protected tracks can be converted to an unprotected version for ~20p a track direct from itunes.
"AAC Purchased" means that you have bought them and they aren't protected and you can play them wherever you like.

Some MP3 players will also play AAC format, others will require conversion to MP3 from AAC but it's fairly easy to do, even using itunes.

Thanks greatly for these very clear instructions, it appears that I have a mix of both these types of files. It doesn't show how how to convert them into MP3files, though. I suppose it would be easiest to buy a player that will play AAC files, whatever brand that might be. All my stuff off CDs is also stored as AAC files.

[Goose]

Thanks greatly for these very clear instructions, it appears that I have a mix of both these types of files. It doesn't show how how to convert them into MP3files, though. I suppose it would be easiest to buy a player that will play AAC files, whatever brand that might be. All my stuff off CDs is also stored as AAC files.

iTunes has the facility to re-encode all your music en-mass to mp3 and vice versa, so you don't worry too much. So long as you don't have and 'protected' or DRM'd music you should be fine. (I'll find the procedure for you, if you get stuck)

I'd go for the player that sounds best to you and has the features you need. Stores like HMV let you listen to them...

Of course you can't beat playing Angry Birds while listening to your favourite tracks.

[Dottie]

Of course you can't beat playing Angry Birds while listening to your favourite tracks.

[Goose]

'Cut the Rope' also rocks - I let one of my dancing girlfriends play it for a bit and she couldn't stop giggling every time she fed the little alien candy. Great fun for 59p!

[Tiggerbabe]

'Cut the Rope' also rocks - I let one of my dancing girlfriends play it for a bit and she couldn't stop giggling every time she fed the little alien candy. Great fun for 59p!

Ooh, I played this for the first time on Saturday, I love it

[jivecat]

By happy coincidence I have recently murdered my mobile phone by drowning it in soup.

So, mindful of your recommendations I have made a hasty purchase of a mobile phone which will also play AAC files, I believe. A SAMSUNG GT-S3100, no idea what it will be like, didn't really think about it too deeply; as I already had a Samsung I thought it would be easy to learn how to use it with minimal reading of instructions and all that tedious stuff. I'm sure it will be OK as a phone.

So I will use it to play about with iTunes and AAC files but am quite happy to buy an additional item if it doesn't work out.

Back to the car stereo bit -

Some newer car radios have an AUX 3.5mm jack socket....

Is a 3 year old Fiesta new enough? What do I look for?

[frodo]

Back to the car stereo bit - Is a 3 year old Fiesta new enough? What do I look for?

I suspect not if the old shape and not a premium model. Might be worth a look in the glove box though.

Unfortunately it appears the only mp3 player you can get an FM modulator for which automatically retunes itself and displays track information via RDS is the ipod/iphone.

[philsmove]

Back to the car stereo bit - Is a 3 year old Fiesta new enough? What do I look for?

this looks like it might do the trick
you will need to remove the radio to fit it

[Lee Bartholomew]

I suspect not if the old shape and not a premium model. Might be worth a look in the glove box though.

Unfortunately it appears the only mp3 player you can get an FM modulator for which automatically retunes itself and displays track information via RDS is the ipod/iphone.

You can get bluetooth MP3 player that do that. There are alot of FM transmitters out there (from £1 on ebay) that work on all players, but they dont display the track listings etc.