I've had a love/hate 1.5 years with my ipod--the hates being battery life and nero compatability, or lack thereof. I'm not sure what the point of a 40 gig one when you can only llsten to a few cds of music, with my aging battery, it's about 6, which is especially annoying since larger files drain it quicker and if you've got 40 gigs, it would be tempting to go lossless. It does sound great, and Apple was great about expeditiously getting it back to me when the headphone jack decided to only output mono. After the inevitable post x-mas sales, I'm in the market for the new iriver, you can't argue with ogg, a cool remote and not being tethered to the charger or itunes.

I just bought one. I settled on the iPod. Its far from perfect but after looking at everything that was available it was the best and I had decided that AAC/MP4 was the future (wish MPC was but I fear it will never be seen on a portable player).

IMO, one very needed feature in IPB is the hability to create editable polls - I.E, that the user can later change his vote.

When I voted at this poll, more than one year and half ago, I had no player. Now I own an Expanium. Also, most people aren't waiting for Vorbis support anymore, after the release of the Karma and the Neuros.

These polls simply aren't trustworthy anymore. Like the Codec poll. I bet several people changed their choice of codec once or twice since they voted there.

@ rjamorim

I agree, however this forum has a feature that only allows you to view the results when you have voted - otherwise you'll loose your vote. I think this has been implemented because otherwise some people might base their opinion on other users’ opinion. Anyway, they just released ipb 2.0 alpha so they'll probably change this....how about if you post this in their suggestion forum.

I've had an 2:nd generation iPod for about a year now. I was very happy with it until it broke down 3 weeks ago. I just had to buy me a new one. Thought long and hard about it and finally decided to buy me a Jens of Sweden 512MB.

I had the original Rio PMP300 when it first came out, and loved it. A year or two later, I upgraded to the Rio500, which in my opinion is the best flash mp3 player ever released. After that, I bought an Iomega HipZip, and took it back a week later because it erm, sucked. Stuck with the Rio500 for another year, then bought a RioVolt SP250, which I've used ever since. It might be a little on the large side, but it's a great mp3 cd player.

But I've since gotten tired of burning new CD's whenever I rip something new, so I plan to buy myself a Rio Karma in the coming weeks, if I don't get one for xmas that is (I've been hinting to various loved ones.. ).

Edit: Wow, I just realized how old this thread was.

A fellow SP250 user! JOY!!!

Did you put iRiver firmware on yours? I'm lovin' it.

Crazy 'bout my Slimx IMP-350.

Palm Zire 71 with RealOne Player and a 256MB Lexar SD card. (I bet your MP3 player doesn't have a 320 x 320 16-bit color screen!)

I have a samsung yepp with 32MB of flash memory that I bought off a friend for £20 pounds.Sounds great, looks nice , eats batterys and users a very tempramental parallel port connection to transfer files if I'm lucky or crash the software.

If I could upgrade this player for xtra battery life,usb or firewire and 5 Gigs I'd be a happy chappy .

But I can't so I'm not.

My portable mp3 player doesn't fall into any of the categories listed. It's a portable dvd-mp3 player, the Sony MDPAP20U. It's not quite on the iRiver level as far as feature-set (not firmware upgradeable and no real user-customizable options) but it does everything I need as far as easy access to all folders on a DVD+RW and has the modes I use most (shuffle all and folder play) as well as resume. Power options are also limited as there is no DC adapter, but the internal lithium battery usually provides enough power per outing. (I recommend an inverter if you're going to be using it for more than 8 hours at a time.)

Not recommended for jogging due to weight, but if you're looking for something to play a large collection on DVD (and like me can't find any hard drive players large enough) this is a viable (albeit quirky) alternative.

Is 80 Gb not large enough for you??? (even if it is a bit $$$)

3 of them

Sony MP3 / CD Player
RCA Kazoo! flash based . 192 MBs
40 gig iPod

Nope. I'd need a minimum of 100 GB for my entire collection (encoded using -aps my 800+ cds are over the 80 GB limit); preferably 120 GB to allow room for expansion. (And yes, the cost is prohibitive for the Archos player ... mine cost $170 US after rebate.)

What would be the best HD-based player to get?

I have been thinking about an iPod, but I think the battery life could be a problem, and it isd just too damn expensive... but it has AAC support...

I love my iPod. The battery life problem is a myth. There is a faq answering that at http://www.ipodlounge.com

I think my first "AAC portable" will be Nokia 6230 mobile phone. Ok it's not gonna be any high capasity (currently the biggest MMC card available is 1 GB), but since I carry my phone always (and 6230 is small and weights only 97g/3.4 oz.), I always also have it with me.

Do you know when is it going to be released and what's its MSRP going to be?

I checked in some online stores, but I couldn't find it.

And I'm very interested...

Nothing certain, but it should be soon. Most seem to think it will be out sometime in Feb.

I don't know about the price, but it will prolly be something around 400 € according to rumors.

Ouch...

But I think it's OK for the semi-PDA, AAC-player and cellphone combo...

Having 1GB of memory with the MMC card puts it in mini iPod range...

Definitely interested...

I don't know how marketing works in Europe, but in the US the hot new phones are heavily discounted if you commit to a service contract or extension to an existing contract. You might get it for 25% of retail in return for $30-40/month for 2 years. for the phone service.

I've a Panasonic SL-CT800, a nice MP3-CD player, and a Rio Karma, since my CD burner decided to have a fit in my one and only laptop, and I don't feel like replacing it at the moment. Wonderful battery life and multi-format support, along with a nice easy to hold casing make this my favorite player.

I've had my diva mp3 player for a long time now. Not the best around but it was cheap at the time and it uses compaq flash memory which i can also use for my digi cam
Might get a new player when one with ogg support gets available.

Couldn't wait to ogg/aac support onto relative cheap CD players and get today my Iriver ChromeX (iMP-150)
It has everything I want, but now I have to upgrade its firmware to 1.30 (it comes with 1.03).
I think I'll use WMA instead of MP3, it think it is a better choise in the range of 128kbps (VBR), is this true?

Seeing your member number and joining date, one would think you have been here long enough to have seen this.

Compadre, Roberto's 128 kbps test refers to WMA Pro, which is not quite the same as WMA, or is there any hardware player that supports WMA Pro yet?

A huevo
What I implied is that maybe he got confused.
I just wanted him to know that the "good" WMA is not supported by any current portable.

Right know, the best choice in the 128k range seems to be AAC.

I have a iRiver 20 GB HDD player which supports OGG. At q8 the unit holds 180 hours of music and has a battery life in excess of 12 hours.....sorry ipoders...your thing doesn't come close. If you use LAME VBR the battery only lasts 14 hours...sorry

Also have a iRiver flash player ifp-395 which is a 512MB player...it too supports ogg...the battery single AA only lasts for 20 hours on playtime...not bad??

Both units sound wondeful...highly recommended

rickshaw

I have the Creative Nomad Jukebox2(10gb) it was a great deal for $161. It sucks, it can only play mp3,wma and wav. Can't wait till I get my iRiver iHP.

Panasonic MP3-CD discman, their higher end black model from a year ago. Still seems like the best bang for the buck, certainly a better deal than another Sony car CD-changer (I've had two of those things die on me, at around $200/ea..)

I have the Panasonic MP3 cd player too and just got an amazing Archos AV 320 Video mp4/mp3 audio player. It is really amazing stuff, the video screen is nearly 4" with an amazing picture. Holds 20g or between 10 and 40 hrs (depending on compression) of video and untold mp3's. A lotta fun

That poll is too old now.

When I voted, years ago, I voted for "Not yet, But I'm about to get one."

Now, I have an Expanium.

I have a Palm Tungsten T3, that plays MP3 and Ogg Vorbis, and I'm craving for an iRiver HDD-based player, perhaps some iGP, possibly the H140 or the H340; probably Santa will tell me which one.

I have an old AVC Soul Player, it has been a truly optimal purchase.
Solid and resistant to falls (up to 1.80 meters... ).
Upgraded with iriver iMP 100 firmware.
Used for more than 2 year, nearly every day for 1-2 hours.

Now, I am waiting for a flash player like the
iriver iFP 700 - 800 series

i got a panasonic CD/mp3 player.

it's kinda crappy - definitely not gapless. it doesn't think about spinning up the CD until the track is finished...

but i got it as a door prize at a conference, so who can complain? it'll handle lame --aps well enough for me. i'd like a more powerful headphone amp though - it's always on full volume and still not enough for my more dynamic songs.

Hey Roberto, does it play iTunes encoded MP4s?
What about Nero HE-AAC?

I have an iRiver iMP-400, and I'm afraid I'm not happy with it. I wish i had bought a regular portable CD player instead.

My iMP-400 is having great difficulties reading my discs (well burned discs. Taiyo Yuden manufactured, burned at a speed i know they work well with in my Asus CD-R/W drive). It will often add distortion to the sound (especially audio CDs, but also mp3 CDs. Not only burned CDs, but also original audio CDs), and sometimes it won't even play all tracks on a disc.

And the fact that it doesn't support gapless playback of lame mp3s, and the ogg vorbis firmware development is taking forever, is also extremely annoying.

When I tested Expanium 411 vs 431 I found that 411 plays .aac but not mp4. 431 plays neither.

I've thought about getting a portable player for about 4 years, but everytime I think I'm ready to get one the only one's I see in local stores only support mp3 or mp3/wma, and the cost doesn't calculate to me especially when only seeing two formats supported, plus they wouldn't be able to hold 2000 plus high quality compressed albums.

After having waited so long and still not purchasing due to them not supporting all of the formats I use which is a requirement I've come to the conclusion that the only reason I wanted a portable player in the first place was not to take my music with me, but to plug it into my home stereo. What I plan to do will not envolve additional storage to buy, and no messing with uploading to a device. The plan is to buy some good quality wireless headphones, and/or some good quality wireless speakers and connect them to my PC which does support all the formats I use.

It's an Expanium 211. Doesn't even play AAC

But, aside that, it's a very good player. Plays all MP3 bitrates, batteries last reasonably long, and it's quite solid.

I currently own two portables (well, three if you count my laptop): the iRiver IFP-380T recorder/player, and a 15GB 3G iPod. I can't say enough good things about the iRiver, except that I wish I had bought the 1GB version instead

My iPod, on the other hand, has largely been a dissapointment IMO. I was initially unhappy with its poor battery life, gaps between songs, easily-scratched shiny (and sissy, IMO ) finish, and almost complete lack of bass. Now, I have found that it f*&^s up my --preset insane classical and jazz recordings as well.

A refurbished 20GB NOMAD Jukebox 3 which looks very pristine and functions well... for only $170

Works very well with the PlayDock PD200 (it was designed for those jukeboxes ), good line out sound quality.

And the major plus (for me) is that it uses laptop harddisks, which means I can upgrade to 100GB harddisks when Toshiba lets them out! Now, which other HD players can do this, huh?

iRiver H120 hard drive player. I love this little player so much. Vorbis support is nice so I can finally abandon mp3. Musepack support would be great but beggers can't be choosers I guess.

I have a 20GB ipod , and one of those sony mp3/atrac3 CD players (hey, sometimes i need more than ~8 hours of battery ).

1. Creative Jukebox 3 with a 40 GB Harddisk (for long journeys)
2. Iriver IFP-380T (for short trips, sports)

Both work very well

<off topic>

It's beggar, not begger. Beggars tended to ask for things, so asking for something came to be known later as begging. Beg comes from beggar, not the other way round.
</off topic>
I think I voted "waiting for a Vorbis portable" previously, but now I am an owner of two portables. One is a phone from LG, which plays my --alt-preset abr files, and the other is a MobiBlu DAH-1200 flash-based player with 128 megs of memory.

I had an IPOD 20 GB... I must say that being able to play back AAC is very important to me.. (I was working on an AAC encoder..)

But IPOD seemed to have some conformance problems with MP3..


wkwai

Really? Care to elaborate and/or provide links? As I'm about to buy one for my wife and we have never owned a portable before, I would really like to hear more about this. Especially since everything we have is in MP3 format (more than half a mix of LAME --aps and --ape).

Hmm, interesting. I never knew that. I got my daily grammar lesson at HA

I believe wkwai is talking about the problems iPods tend to have with 320 cbr mp3s.

I mean, that if you need recording, then only one is the best - Neuros