MP3 Player Questions (Anyone have one of these?)

[Moose]

Sorry to start another mp3 player thread, but this is a bit more specific. I was doing a little comparison shopping at CNET and came across an mp3 player that is "supposedly" geared toward using it at the gym. Here is the link. I'm wondering if anyone has it or tried it........looking for an honest evaluation. There are alot of user comments on CNET of people that love this thing (but you can never know if it's an employee of the maker, or whatever)

http://electronics.cnet.com/electron...l?tag=pdtl-img


Also, I want to look into an mp3 player that I can hang around my neck with a chain or string while I'm working out. I guess they call them "Keychain" mp3 players. Anyone have any comments/evaluations of these specific kinds of players I'm talking about? Here's an example....

http://electronics.cnet.com/electron...l?tag=pdtl-img

[BCC]

If you're really into music, I'd suggest an iPAC. I have the 10gig version. It's excellent if you're a music lover. It also comes with a little leather goober with a clip, so you can clip it on.

[AstronautJones]

10 gigs, wow thats impressive.

[AdamGberg]

10 gigs! i was looking at buying one with 64mb and it was 100$, how much was yours chase?

[Delphi]

I've got a lesser model of SonicBlue Rio. I paid about $110 for it at BestBuy. It's got 64MB memory built in and an expansion slot for a card. I've got a little less than an hour of music recorded on the built-in memory alone. It doesn't have an FM receiver. I would imagine that the reception would suck on one of those, being that it doesn't have an external antenna. I was p!ssed when I found out that Walmart had the next better player in the line for about the same price I paid for one at BestBuy. I wouldn't get an extended warranty for a player in the $150-200 range.

A friend of mine (a Mac-aholic) has an iPod with about 3000 years of recording time with its built-in memory. He hooks it into the stereo in the O.R. I've never heard the same song twice yet. I would imagine it might be too big to comfortably carry around while working out.

[Tiare]

I recommend a MD player (mini disk) instead if you can afford the extra $50. Reasons:

.mp3 is a bad music format. It has inferior sound to .wav and most other formats for sound quality.

Extra music costs a fortune with a mp3 player. a single expansion chip runs about $30 and holds a couple hours of music while a $5 md holds 8+ hours (2 hours in true CD quality sound)

MD players are virtually skip free. MP3 players are too.

If all you are buying it for is to play the same songs over and over day after day, then an mp3 player would work well. I personally get tired of listening to the same music more than a couple days, so the MD player is much better. Plus I like to listen to it in my car on long trips and I can record about 40 hours of music for $20.

[BCC]

My iPOD is smaller than a cd player by far. It's windows compatible as well. The 10 gig version I got was around 400. Plus another 20 or so for the firewire card I needed.

[BCC]

Delphi, I don't know which version your friend has, perhaps it's larger. Here's a picture of mine, a bit blurry, but you can see the size of it since it's in my hand.

[ectx]

I have the first generation 5 gig version iPod. I've had it for over a year now and I do just about everything with it. Sweet player and it doubles up as a hard drive for me. They have a 20 gig version too. I agree with Chase...if you love music it's the one to get. I wish I had the 20 gig version now, still, 5 gigs is a lot of music. Chase, what's on your iPod?

[freztek]

sorry, not really answering your question...but, I have the RCA Lyra (little blue model) and what I love about it is it reads .wma files (Windows Media Files) which are the files you rip with Windows Media Player and are in pretty decent quality and 1/4 the size of normal .mp3s. You can just drag and drop them on to the player and it holds about 80 songs. The player itself weights less than any I've seen. Its awesome for workouts. Sony's NetMD is pretty cool too since it has a built in burner that allows you to even burn FM Radio off the reciever. Those are the 2 I'd go with.

[GonePostal]

Originally posted by Tiare
I recommend a MD player (mini disk) instead if you can afford the extra $50. Reasons:

.mp3 is a bad music format. It has inferior sound to .wav and most other formats for sound quality.

Extra music costs a fortune with a mp3 player. a single expansion chip runs about $30 and holds a couple hours of music while a $5 md holds 8+ hours (2 hours in true CD quality sound)

MD players are virtually skip free. MP3 players are too.

If all you are buying it for is to play the same songs over and over day after day, then an mp3 player would work well. I personally get tired of listening to the same music more than a couple days, so the MD player is much better. Plus I like to listen to it in my car on long trips and I can record about 40 hours of music for $20.

Ugh mp3 format is not an "inferior" format. Waves are 10-15x larger then mp3s. Second if your listening to your cd's on your computer you can not physically notice the difference between 128kb encoded mp3s and a cd playing on your computer. For a an advanced Hi-Fi system 256kbs are need tho.
Secondly MD's use compression also for their audio. So they considered "inferior" too? Well even if you do not use compression on your MD you are still doing 1 of 2 things. 1 using an optical cable from your Hi-Fi system to MD which will give you an awesome quality of sound. Yet again nothing that an mp3 can not achieve with a higher bit rate. 2 your transfering songs from your cd rom to your MD via a USB or some other cable thus limiting the bit rate back to 128kb.

To answer the orginal question. Your best bet is iPod if you:
1 have the money to spend.
2 use computer's alot and have a need to carry large files around with you (iPod can double as a hard drive)
3 can deal with a slightly larger package but not have to carry 10x MD's with you and keep swaping them.
4. TRANSFER TIMES. Transfering songs over to a mp3 player is fast especially with firewire or usb 2.0

[Vynod]

I just got myself a creative nomad zen (20 gig hard drive). Its almost half the price of iPod. And the best part is that it has custom 4 band graphic equalizer.

http://electronics.cnet.com/electron...-20493054.html

[Delphi]

BCC, that doesn't look as big in your hand as what I remember seeing on the table top at work. Does that thing clip onto your belt or does it have a carrying case?

Postal, it may be my imagination but I download some mp3's of some Stone Temple Pilots from WinMx. I ripped them and then recorded them onto CD. I didn't think they sounded very good when the sound saturation was high (loud music) so I bought some of their CD's. The CD's I bought sound better than the ones I recorded. I realize there have been multiple format translations in the process, but the store-bought CD's sound better than the download mp3- rip- record on CD variety.

[Moose]

I do realize the ipod is the sh!t......but I'm looking for something more for gym use....that I can hang from my neck or something. Looking for one of those tiny tiny keychain like ones.....that can hold a couple hours of music. I'm just wondering if anyone has one of these tiny mp3 players.

[BCC]

Originally posted by Delphi
BCC, that doesn't look as big in your hand as what I remember seeing on the table top at work. Does that thing clip onto your belt or does it have a carrying case?

It has a little leather case that it slides into with a clip on it.

[Shankerr]

I use a samsung Yepp MP3 player, holed quite a few songs.. not like 10 gigs, but how many songs are you really gonna listen to during one workout anyway??..??.. its about 1/4 the size of the one in the pic, and has an armband, perfect for lifting, snake the wire through your shirt, and there is nothing to get caught on bars, etc while you lift

[Delphi]

Originally posted by Shankerr

and has an armband, perfect for lifting, snake the wire through your shirt, and there is nothing to get caught on bars, etc while you lift

You know how the pro football players are putting constricting bands on their lower biceps this year? I figure the only reason to do that is to make their arms look bigger and pumped. Next year I want to see them with mp3 players strapped to their arms.

[GonePostal]

Originally posted by Delphi
BCC, that doesn't look as big in your hand as what I remember seeing on the table top at work. Does that thing clip onto your belt or does it have a carrying case?

Postal, it may be my imagination but I download some mp3's of some Stone Temple Pilots from WinMx. I ripped them and then recorded them onto CD. I didn't think they sounded very good when the sound saturation was high (loud music) so I bought some of their CD's. The CD's I bought sound better than the ones I recorded. I realize there have been multiple format translations in the process, but the store-bought CD's sound better than the download mp3- rip- record on CD variety.

What bit rate are the mp3's you downloaded? The distortion may be also due to the speakers you have. Did you listen to the cd on your computer??? Lastly if you rip your STP cd yourself at 192kbs there should be little if any difference in sound if you listen to it on your computer. (256kbs for Hi-Fi)

[Delphi]

I don't know for sure, but it's probably the bit rate of the mp3's to start with.

[Manveet]

I've got a an mp3 player, nothing fancy, it uses click disks. Each click disk has about 30mb on it. It's kinda big, but fits fine in my pocket and it works well.

I personally would go for something that Chase has, if you have the $$$. That thing is sweet man.