I'm finally getting tired of my MP3 CD player. Time to move on to bigger and better things. My birthday is coming up and I'm looking to buy a Harddrive based digital music player with the aid of my parents. I haven't really looked around too much to be honest. The Creative Labs Zen Touch and 4th Generation iPod both have my eye right now, I should probably look around for some reviews. Below are things I'm looking for though:
-Price to be under 400$
-10 hours + battery life preferred
-Minimum of 10 gigs storage space, looking for at least 20
-Player can be used as removable drive in Windows
-Doesn't require any special sort of software to put music onto the device (Not required, but strongly preferred)
-Has a decent warranty available
-Good format support (Ogg, Flac etc...looking for support for a lossless format in addition to mp3 and whatnot)
-Good sound quality of course
That's about it so far. I'm open to all sort of brands. I'd appreciate it if you could post other players, reviews to ones mentoned etc. Thanks.
Full Version: Looking For A Portable Music Player
iRiver also make pretty good players. Look for the iHP models. 
QUOTE (raum @ Jul 27 2004, 08:28 PM)
I'm finally getting tired of my MP3 CD player. Time to move on to bigger and better things. My birthday is coming up and I'm looking to buy a Harddrive based digital music player with the aid of my parents. I haven't really looked around too much to be honest. The Creative Labs Zen Touch and 4th Generation iPod both have my eye right now, I should probably look around for some reviews. Below are things I'm looking for though:
-Price to be under 400$
-10 hours + battery life preferred
-Minimum of 10 gigs storage space, looking for at least 20
-Player can be used as removable drive in Windows
-Doesn't require any special sort of software to put music onto the device (Not required, but strongly preferred)
-Has a decent warranty available
-Good format support (Ogg, Flac etc...looking for support for a lossless format in addition to mp3 and whatnot)
-Good sound quality of course
That's about it so far. I'm open to all sort of brands. I'd appreciate it if you could post other players, reviews to ones mentoned etc. Thanks.
-Price to be under 400$
-10 hours + battery life preferred
-Minimum of 10 gigs storage space, looking for at least 20
-Player can be used as removable drive in Windows
-Doesn't require any special sort of software to put music onto the device (Not required, but strongly preferred)
-Has a decent warranty available
-Good format support (Ogg, Flac etc...looking for support for a lossless format in addition to mp3 and whatnot)
-Good sound quality of course
That's about it so far. I'm open to all sort of brands. I'd appreciate it if you could post other players, reviews to ones mentoned etc. Thanks.
hi! i am very interested in the iAudio M3L at the moment. some features are "up to 35h continous playback" and "Supports MP3, OGG, WMA, ASF, WAV and OGG (up to Q10)". It has 20/40 GB storage space and I've seen it in Germany for under 380€. I am sorry that I cannot say something about the soundquality, but my brother just got a M3 and is very satisfied especially with the ultra-slim design it has.
I am going to replace my 2nd gen. iPod with a M3L, soon I guess.
Gapless playback is also planned. Link: http://eng.iaudio.com/zeroboard/product_M3...enu=p&id=cw5004
I'll check out that link, that sounds like a nice player.
I'm leaning towards the iRiver at the moment for it's Audio Format support, casing colors, solid battery life and generic drive support.
The other models I was looking at were the Rio Karma, iPod 4th Gen and that new Zen Touch.
The Karma and iPod don't seem to be offering that much. The Zen looks to have a cheaper price and better battery life, but the company has a worse track record, less attractive case design, support for WAM and MP3 only (I'd only use MP3 of the two) and I'm not sure whether it can be used as a generic drive or not.
I'm leaning towards the iRiver at the moment for it's Audio Format support, casing colors, solid battery life and generic drive support.
The other models I was looking at were the Rio Karma, iPod 4th Gen and that new Zen Touch.
The Karma and iPod don't seem to be offering that much. The Zen looks to have a cheaper price and better battery life, but the company has a worse track record, less attractive case design, support for WAM and MP3 only (I'd only use MP3 of the two) and I'm not sure whether it can be used as a generic drive or not.
QUOTE (raum @ Jul 27 2004, 11:37 PM)
I'll check out that link, that sounds like a nice player.
I'm leaning towards the iRiver at the moment for it's Audio Format support, casing colors, solid battery life and generic drive support.
The other models I was looking at were the Rio Karma, iPod 4th Gen and that new Zen Touch.
The Karma and iPod don't seem to be offering that much. The Zen looks to have a cheaper price and better battery life, but the company has a worse track record, less attractive case design, support for WAM and MP3 only (I'd only use MP3 of the two) and I'm not sure whether it can be used as a generic drive or not.
I'm leaning towards the iRiver at the moment for it's Audio Format support, casing colors, solid battery life and generic drive support.
The other models I was looking at were the Rio Karma, iPod 4th Gen and that new Zen Touch.
The Karma and iPod don't seem to be offering that much. The Zen looks to have a cheaper price and better battery life, but the company has a worse track record, less attractive case design, support for WAM and MP3 only (I'd only use MP3 of the two) and I'm not sure whether it can be used as a generic drive or not.
the m3l player appears as a generic drive in explorer. I also considered the karma for me but the bulky design really suxx IMO. and the support apple offers really suxx,too! they do not listen to their customer's needs.. really bad, but hey! they're the leaders on the market!
'
You can check out the new Zen Touch. Many people claim that the Creative Zen series of players provide the best sound quality possible. I personally own a Creative Zen Xtra and I don't disagree 
. The only drawback is that the player does not feature a user-replaceable battery like my Zen Xtra, but then none of the other players do too. Check it out. I hope you like it enough to buy it.
. The only drawback is that the player does not feature a user-replaceable battery like my Zen Xtra, but then none of the other players do too. Check it out. I hope you like it enough to buy it.
All hard drive players have some major things in common: lots of space, fast transfer rate, 12+ battery life. What will some of them apart are the Navigation. So far the iAudio M3L looks hard to navigation.
Reviews: http://reviews.cnet.com/4852-5_7-30842848.html?ob=1 (Read the Negatives)
iPod has an extremely easy navigation setup with a scroll wheel.
Also iPod has a large memory cache so that when you are playing music the actual harddrive is not spinning (increasing the life of the player). Some of the players like the Lyra vibrate very violently when you try to play.
http://www.apple.com/ipod
Talk to the techs http://www.apple.com/contact/
Anyway, I suggest that you go to the comp stores and play around with them. Bring some nicer head phones then the ones they give you to test them out. (Bestbuy, COmpUSa) Second talk to techs at the stores not the sales team.
I used the song MiniDisc players for two years, and believe when you have a bunch of albums navigation becomes extremely crucial.
Reviews: http://reviews.cnet.com/4852-5_7-30842848.html?ob=1 (Read the Negatives)
iPod has an extremely easy navigation setup with a scroll wheel.
Also iPod has a large memory cache so that when you are playing music the actual harddrive is not spinning (increasing the life of the player). Some of the players like the Lyra vibrate very violently when you try to play.
http://www.apple.com/ipod
Talk to the techs http://www.apple.com/contact/
Anyway, I suggest that you go to the comp stores and play around with them. Bring some nicer head phones then the ones they give you to test them out. (Bestbuy, COmpUSa) Second talk to techs at the stores not the sales team.
I used the song MiniDisc players for two years, and believe when you have a bunch of albums navigation becomes extremely crucial.
Check out the iRiver H320.
Long battery life, 20GB storage, player include a high quaility SENNHEISER MX400 headphones.
The building quaility of this player is solid, and the color screen is outstanding. This unit allows me to put album cover images in the folder of the specific album, and I can see it while listening. Also, the clolor screen help me look for songs easily, and it's nice to look at too.
Long battery life, 20GB storage, player include a high quaility SENNHEISER MX400 headphones.
The building quaility of this player is solid, and the color screen is outstanding. This unit allows me to put album cover images in the folder of the specific album, and I can see it while listening. Also, the clolor screen help me look for songs easily, and it's nice to look at too.
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