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Joined: Feb 16, 2005 Posts: 4696 Location: aylsham
if you hadn't guessed, this is a thread about mp3 players....
due to my new car not having an mp3 stereo (can't be arsed to upgrade the multichanger) i am thinking of buying an mp3 player to use with a transmitter in the car, however i don't really have much knowledge on them as i have never owned one.
i would like a good mp3 player with good sound reproduction as i plan on using it with headphones on my bike and around the city too, the memory really needs to be at least 30gb but the bigger the better. the usability also needs to be good as i will be using it in the car so access needs to be fast and not fiddly.
does anyone know of a good mp3 player to use for this type of stuff? i don't want to spend a fortune but i do want a good piece of kit which isn't going to fuck up on me a month after the warranty has expired.
the obvious choice is the ipod *shudder* as they seem to offer the larger capacities but i would like to know of any others i should try out.
cheers me dears.
.s. _________________ -one person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter-
The sound quality produced by an iPod is better than you'll ever get through a transmitter. It's not perfect, but really only people with a keen musical ear will notice any difference. That can improved vastly anyway with a good pair of headphones and encoding your mp3s at the highest rates, rather than the shitty default iTunes rate.
I'd recommend the iPod.
The Griffin iTrip auto is the transmitter I use, and I've been prefectly happy with it.
And I got a Belkin In-Car iPod Holder, so I can hit buttons easily while driving .
If you've got a tape deck, apparently a cassette adaptor produces better sound than a transmitter.
My friends always rave about their creative zen thingies. They sound pretty good to me, but then I don't really give a shit about quality as long as it's not god awful. _________________ The Vanguard - www.myspace.com/VanguardUK
Debut E.P. "Massive Brutal Robots" available now!
I had a Creative Zen and it was shit. It broke on me and I just really didn't like it.
iPod all the way. I can't live without mine now and I was dead against it to start with. It really is top notch and people only slag it because it is the best.
Seriously Scott, borrow mine for a bit and you will see what I mean. _________________ We are standing on the edge.
I had a Creative Zen and it was shit. It broke on me and I just really didn't like it.
iPod all the way. I can't live without mine now and I was dead against it to start with. It really is top notch and people only slag it because it is the best.
Seriously Scott, borrow mine for a bit and you will see what I mean.
People slag it off because it's an expensive fashion statement. Whereas the Creative Zen is an mp3 player.
I've had 2 Zen's, one broke because I dropped it repeatedly, not really the Zen's fault. Plus, the cost of 2 of them was still probably cheaper than an ipod.
My missus has a Zen Video + which is awesome and has had no problems whatsoever.
the ipod just worked better the interface is better, it feels lovely to use and hold, even 2 or 3 years on. it's better ot of the box, itunes is better, and if you encode well / download good quality mp3 and get decent headphones, sures or something, then you don't need to worry about the quality.
i'm now considering a new one, maybe a nano, maybe an iphone, we'll see.
the creative sound hardware is probably a touch better, they have been making sound stuff for a long time, but i don't think it's really an issue for mere mortals like us with regards to the ipod vs zen debate. don't come crying to me that your mp3 doesnt sound good, compared to x brand, when mp3 is a lossy fromat. that's the whole idea.
go try some out in comet / currysm and try the interfaces. that's the best way. buy (online) whichever you think is best, your judgement is as good as anyone elses, they're all good players.
buy a cheap car head unit with a line in, or an ipod connector then you don't need to worry about shitty fm xmitters.
Joined: Feb 16, 2005 Posts: 4696 Location: aylsham
cheers for the help guys, it looks like a toss between the creatives of ipods, i can't seem to find any larger memory creatives about though.
jam, i can't be doing with changing the cd player as it is all standard etc, if was going to do that i could put in my clarion unit. i have heard good things about the transmitters for ipods from people at work too. _________________ -one person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter-
Joined: Feb 16, 2005 Posts: 4696 Location: aylsham
just had a look at prices and from what i can see the ipods are actually cheaper when it comes to size to price options. the 60gb zen is about £170 where the 80gb ipod is less than that on the new gen ones.
i know that ipod is a brand and apple are usually gash but i really don't see much else out there giving a challenge on the value for money stakes at the minute. looks like i will need to do a bit of saving up to get a scrot-pod. _________________ -one person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter-
just had a look at prices and from what i can see the ipods are actually cheaper when it comes to size to price options. the 60gb zen is about £170 where the 80gb ipod is less than that on the new gen ones.
i know that ipod is a brand and apple are usually gash but i really don't see much else out there giving a challenge on the value for money stakes at the minute. looks like i will need to do a bit of saving up to get a scrot-pod.
To be honest, if you want to spend around £150 I'd get an Archos. Might only be 30GB for that price, but they do *everything* (apart from fit in your pocket maybe)
I have a 6gb player and even that's enough for me to end up hitting skip track loads of times when it randomly chooses stuff I'm not in the mood for
Joined: Apr 19, 2005 Posts: 5138 Location: At the bottom of the garden, amongst the birds and the bees
Creative will sound the best - like Nick said, their a company that started off making nothing but audio equipment, and they're pretty damn good at it.
An iPod may well be easier to use for some things, but if you're driving/riding the only things you should worry about are 'play', 'stop' and track skipping. The most complicated it should get is maybe turning 'shuffle' on or off - so usability shouldn't really be an issue with any player.
Alys' sister has an FM transmitter for her iPod, and it's fucking awful - it's impossible to get a clear signal, and even when it's as clear as it gets every bass drum distorts into white noise for a split second.
Personally, I'd save the money. Like Andy says, 4GB is enough to hold 8 hours at 128Kbps, which would get you from Norwich to Glasgow (just). A quick look around tells me you can get a 4GB mp3 player with a mini-SD slot for £40, and a 4GB mini-SD card for £30 (they're the first prices I saw too). That's enough to get you to Glasgow and back without repeating a song. If that's not enough storage for you, guess what! You can actually delete stuff off of an MP3 player, and put on new songs! Or buy another card!
Steve _________________ If you're insulted, you're reading it wrong. You fucking imbecile.
"Enlightenment at the cost of my wings is not a price I am willing to pay"
I think what Scott wants is something to hold all of his music though.
Going back to the Creative I had, it just stopped working. I didn't drop it, in fact I looked after it very well because I can't be without my mp3 player nowadays! I guess it just wasn't for me. It definitley didn't rate next to the iPod.
By the way Creative is a brand aswell. Why not buy something because it is a top brand?! That's just crap. If it's good, it's good. _________________ We are standing on the edge.
Joined: Apr 19, 2005 Posts: 5138 Location: At the bottom of the garden, amongst the birds and the bees
G wrote:
By the way Creative is a brand aswell. Why not buy something because it is a top brand?! That's just crap. If it's good, it's good.
That's true - though saying that, Creative is an audio hardware brand, and Apple is trendy gizmo brand.
I still say you'd be better off just getting a small player that you can expand. I'd do that, and I've got far too much music to fit on any one player. Have one card with classic albums, one with recent purchases, one with your favourite songs, whatever. If you're that desperate to have instant access to your entire music collection, then use the car/bike where your MP3 player is to drive yourself home.
As for reliability - they all fucking break. Hard drives are fragile things, even more so when you make them tiny. That's part of the reason I wouldn't spend lots of money on one; Zens and iPods break just as much as each other, and just as much as cheap no-name ones, so I'd rather buy one that's cheap to replace when the inevitable happens.
Steve _________________ If you're insulted, you're reading it wrong. You fucking imbecile.
"Enlightenment at the cost of my wings is not a price I am willing to pay"
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