mp3/mini disc players - who should i buy from?

[Navaros]

today i was looking in the Sony Store and Sony's selection SUCKS. they only have *one* water and impact resistant minidisc player and the volume control and start/stop/play /fast forward/rewind are all integrated into *ONE* very sloppily-designed moveable "button". the button needs to be pushed in the direction of the function you want. since it is INTEGRATED, when you are trying to turn the volume up you will end up fast forwarding instead, and vice versa!!! plus, on the unit the guy in the store let me hold, the cheap plastic button CAME OFF! this was the worst design i'd ever seen in my life when it comes to a portable music device and it costs $330 Canadian plus 15% tax on top of that!!!

they had only one mp3 player at the Sony store, and it cost $799 Canadian plus tax. "memory sticks" for it (otherwise it can't function) cost $160 plus tax EACH. it comes with one 128mb memory stick. and this thing ain't even impact or water resistant!

conclusion: when it comes to Sony, mp3 players and minidisc players SUCK.

I need to buy one of these things but i want one that has a GOOD design and no cheap crappy plastic buttons that are gonna fall off in a few months. it needs to be impact and water resistant. and i don't what any ridiculously-low storage capacity either. 64MB would not even hold 5 of my songs (I download high quality, 320 bit rate whenever possible). If i get an mp3 player i don't want anything less than 128MB of storage capacity, and come to think of it, it would need to be *cheap* to buy additional memory for it too. does such a thing exist, or am I thinking ahead of my time? maybe i need a minidisc player for that reason. in which case it must be impact and water resistant and have a good design.

creative labs is even worse than Sony and I am boycotting creative labs for their failure to support their products (just like EA/WW abandons everything and their customers, so does creative)

do any of you know who I can buy from? what manufacturer makes a GOOD product that performs this function?

[Acriku]

There should be a Best Buy in Canada somewheres...

www.bestbuy.com

[SurlyPIG]

Yeah definately don't buy from the sony store, they make good discmans but avoid their mp3s like the plague.

You want size? Well you've got two options. You can get a heavilly upgraded flash mp3 player that'll have a good wack of memory and uses batteries efficiently. They are quite pricy, since flash memory is still quite expensive, and they have a very low mb/$ return. Or you can get one with a mini hard drive like the Nomad Jukebox, but they tend to be bigger, heavier, and run through batteries a LOT more, because they have to spin the hard disk AND run volatile antishock memory. I'd advise against a minidisk - they have all the same problems as CD players except for size, plus they're more expensive and break a hell of a lot easier. Oh, and make absolutely sure you consider battery life and energy efficiency (decibals per milliwatt) when choosing a player. After running through even a few packages of batteries, you can lose or save a lot of money. AA batteries last way longer and are cheaper, I'd reccomend getting one that has AAs. AAAs are small and light weight, but they're pretty putsy when it comes to power and they're a rip off. Also, definately use rechargeable batteries. You can get them in alkaline, now. I use Pure Energy AAs for my single battery Rio PMP 300 that I bought three years ago. I've used it hundreds and hundreds of hours during my commutes. It was a worthy investment for me.

As for cheap memory, I think the cheapest stuff out there right now is smartflash memory, which almost all mp3s use. I seem to recall Ijam made an mp3 that had its own memory that came in 40mb cards that was even cheaper, but I'm not quite sure...And as you saw sony promotes their own rip off memory...terrible waste IMO. Also, 320kb/s is a bit too much, if you get the music from a quality recording then 192 or even 160 should be enough for even the pickyest digital listener. But hey, if the bitrate is that important to you, go for a mini hard drive mp3, buy yourself some nice rechargeables and relish in the fact that your mp3 player probably has more space than my entire hard drive :'(. They make ridiculasly big ones now...anywhere from 6-20gb...even if you didn't convert to a super high quality mp3, even 6gb is enough to hold 17 CDs worth of WAV files.

[Desert_Eagle25]

If you're looking for place, I suggest RadioShack, BestBuy, or computer/techy places like CompUSA, or Fry's Electronics. If you're looking for a company, Diamond and Roxio are good ones.

[pointybum]

http://www.pjbox.com

if price isnt the issue then this is the best player on the market.

[exatreide]

if you want duribily you got to go with Lyra..I know its old, but the thing has never died on me. This is after being droped on the floor repeated times. rained on, ect. Its alive and still kicking. Mine only has a 64 mb chip. But since there first generation mp3 players they are prety cheap. There memory flash discs go up to 550 megs.

Its not much on options though. Volume control on the side. Optional DC power cord to plug into wall. Fast foward, rewinde, stop/off button(hit once to go back to main menu hit twice to turn it off) runs for about 100 hours on two aa bateries.

also has built in equlizer thing for you to mess with if you want to.

flash discs should be cheap since the thing is a good 3 to 4 years old.

but the discs are water proff also :)

its a good buy

[SurlyPIG]

There aren't any BestBuys, Fry's or (go figure) compUSAs in Canada...And the 'shack is pretty lousy in the mp3 department.

[Navaros]

i use Pure Energy recharables too and they suck. i use them in my walkman and they play a cassette for about 1 hour in the morning (after having been fully charged the night before) and then when i don't use my walkman until the end of the day (after 5 PM), it plays the cassette for about half an hour more and that's it. batteries are dead. i just bought NEW Pure Energy batteries to see if my old ones were screwed up and the SAME THING happened with the new ones. i am VERY disappointed with how the Alkaline Pure Energy batteries discharge themself like water from a tap that is left on all day. before I had a Pure Energy charger and used them, i had a DynaCharge Charger and DynaCharge Nickel Cadium batteries. they discharged automtically too! so i ditched it and bought Pure Energy thinking it wouldn't do that BS, and even *they* discharge automatically! It's incredibly annoying. I need to know who to buy GOOD rechargable batteries from too.

Maybe I should just buy another walkman and do like i have been doing, taping my MP3's onto casette. But Sony's Walkman line really sucks these days. They don't have my old model (WS-FS499), which rocked. I really hate Panasonic --- everything they make is crap. So I don't know who I should by a Walkman from either

i am very confused about this but i need *something* to play my music on since my old walkman barely works

[ethan]

you should buy a CdPlayer that batteries dont run out too quick. go to a big wholesale place or on Ebay, thats all i know. or take a trip to the US and buy something here.. ;D

[Navaros]

CDplayers are too big and clunky and cumbersome

also i don't want a hard-drive MP3 players. magnetic ways to store things is the WORST idea in the world. my computer hard drive just fried due to receiving electro-magnetical damage for NO good reason at all (I even have a surge protector)

i don't wanna pay an arm and a leg for a hard-drive mp3 player. the whole thing will turn to garbage the moment it enters a powerful magnetic field. that's a horrible idea.

[Navaros]

http://shopping.yahoo.com/shop?d=zpmp&id=1990489082&cf=4&clink=dmss/

the yahoo users sure hate the 128MB Rio, pretty much unanimously

[SurlyPIG]

Don't buy another walkman - it sounds like you're in the market for a relatively simple flash MP3 player. All rechargeable batteries have reduced life after each charge. They're pretty brutal when it comes to powering devices with moving parts. Walkmans are the worst because they constantly have to spin, while there is constant resist from the tape. CD players are much better but they're nowhere near in the realm of mp3s. I too have noticed that rechargeables burn out in no time when used in walkmans. But a single AA pure energy lasts weeks in my MP3 when it's on its inititial charge. Probably 30+ hours, since all the power is going toward sound amplification instead of spinning a disc or pulling a tape.

From what you've said, I'd reccomend a nice little flash memory 128megger with either a 64 or 128 smartmemory expansion. Buy yourself some rechargeables (pure energies will work well in MP3s since they are low-drain devices), and maybe a set of some efficient headphones. Remember, the more efficient your headphones, the less you'll drain your batteries, the longer they'll last, the more money you'll save. Headphones are a department where sony actually does a good job in. I'd reccomend in-the-ear, over-the-head headphones. Speaker headphones or earbuds are much less eficcient and usually more exensive. Earphones just plain hurt. I've got a good pair of black & grey foldable Sonys with 108db/mw efficiency. The in-the-ear design makes the sound emerge closer to your ear drum, plus there's the added benefit of not producing the "concert effect" (loud music that everyone else has to listen to).

You can surf around players at www.mp3.com to get some ideas. A lot of the stuff isn't available everywhere but it'll give you some ideas. If possible, post a manufacturers link to whatever you buy and tell me how you like it...my Diamond Rio 300 is on it's last legs...

[Navaros]

can you explain what "flash" means? not familiar with that terminology. is that anything without a hard-drive?

if i buy an 128MB mp3 player then i guess i am stuck listening to the mp3s i have saved on it until i take it back to my computer and re-save different mp3's over it? what i mean is, there is no way to swap what i listen to while i am travelling like i would be able to with a walkman or cd/mini disc player... is that correct?

would it be easy to save multiple playlists on the sofware that comes with most MP3 players, and import them all at once, rather than having to individually click each mp3 i'd want to save to the device every single time i want to change what is saved on it?

also, another thing that REALLY turned me off about the horrible sony md player was that you have to CONVERT your MP3 files into a BS format before that device will play them. I am hoping Sony is the only manufacturer that tries to force you to change your MP3's into something else before you can listen to them?

[TMA_1]

why dont they make an mp3 compatible cd player? cd's hold like up to hundreds of mp3s which are good quality. Why cant they make a cd player that plays mp3s off cds? you could have massive collections on just a few cds.

[SurlyPIG]

can you explain what "flash" means? not familiar with that terminology. is that anything without a hard-drive?

Sure. Memory, such as the RAM you have in your computer, is a way of storing information in a non-physical form. Memory is read with some sort of a sensor, and requires no movement to be used. The difference between random access memory (RAM, like on computers) and flah memory, is that files can be permanently saved on flash memory (until you delete them of course). When RAM (also called volatile memory) loses it's power source (ie turning off your com), the data that was stored on the memory is lost.

if i buy an 128MB mp3 player then i guess i am stuck listening to the mp3s i have saved on it until i take it back to my computer and re-save different mp3's over it? what i mean is, there is no way to swap what i listen to while i am travelling like i would be able to with a walkman or cd/mini disc player... is that correct?

Yes and no. Most mp3 players have a base memory built in, plus room for additional expansion memory cards. You can't remove the memory that is built in to an mp3 player, and to change the songs on the base player, you would have to plug it into your comp and switch them around. However, you can remove, swap, and alternate the flash expansion cards just as you would with CDs or tapes. You can buy MP3 players that have NO onboard memory, and have lots of room for expansion slots, so you could have several cards in the mp3 player at once. The downside to this is that flash memory cards are WAY more expensive than CD-Rs and even minidiscs, but their price is coming down and they can be modified like a minidisc or a CD-RW.

would it be easy to save multiple playlists on the sofware that comes with most MP3 players, and import them all at once, rather than having to individually click each mp3 i'd want to save to the device every single time i want to change what is saved on it?

Hmm, that I don't know about. It would depend a lot on the mp3 players software. My mp3 works with its own program to import files you choose, and you can't save playlists and throw it on all at once, but then again mine's 3 years old. Some of them work like external hard drives, where the computer reckognizes the mp3 player as "Removable Drive (E:){or whatever drive letter is next}" Some have drag-and-drop software, but I've never heard of importing playlists for a flash MP3 player. However, if you organized folders of music as playlists, then it's a matter of selecting the folder and putting it into the player.

also, another thing that REALLY turned me off about the horrible sony md player was that you have to CONVERT your MP3 files into a BS format before that device will play them. I am hoping Sony is the only manufacturer that tries to force you to change your MP3's into something else before you can listen to them?

Hmm I didn't know that, but I guess it's another tick in the list of reasons to not buy mp3s from sony. I've never heard of any other company making an MP3 player that has its own format. Any company doing that other than sony would be committing business suicide. That said, some MP3 players support multiple formats, the most common being MP3, WAV, and WMA.

[Navaros]

may bad for not anunciating, but it's not the sony mp3 players (at least i do not *know* that they make you convert, but they *may*...). rather, i was using "md" for minidisc. bad habit brought on by seeing that abbreviation too much lately. the sony minidisc players force ya to convert all mp3s to sony's "atrac3" format ... i don't know what that is but i'm guessing it's the reason for the really loud hissing i heard while listening to playback of a minidisc on the demo unit in the store... that was of course until the 2-cent plastic button which is the *only* way to control the volume, play/stop/forward/rewind functions completely *broke* off the thing when i gently pressed it to perform a function ::)

[SurlyPIG]

LOL that sure sounds like sony. They're great at making some stuff but, man, they overstep their bounds sometimes. I bet that MDs have to have a certain file type because of the complicated discs that they use, so that might be standard on all minidiscs, but you'd have to ask for yourself since I'm just guessing.