Which MP3 player?

esuhl

I'm thinking about dragging myself out of the stone age and buying a 20 or 30GB MP3 player, but does anyone know which ones are the best? The most important thing for me would be the sound quality, followed by functionality/usability and battery life. I'll only be using it for music so a photo quality screen would be wasted on me!

I would ideally like something is fairly robust and easy to repair if anything goes wrong. I'm considering an iPod since, being so popular, there are bound to be some replacement parts and tools available somewhere...

Also, as it's my first "proper" MP3 player, what should I be looking for in terms of usability and playlist functionality (I don't really have any idea how this works so any tips would be greatly appreciated!)

Are there any really useful or really annoying features I ought to look out for?

Many thanks in advance!!! :-)

Omertron

Might be worth having a read of this article: GadgetCentre.com

amcluesent

>The most important thing for me would be the sound quality<

In that case, get an ipod plus some quality earphones. For the very best, look at the Shure or Etymotics ranges (£100+) or Sennheiser MX500 or PX100 for sensible money.

monterey_2

There are many Ipod "wanabees", but they all fall short of the Ipod itself.

I think that the Video Ipod is a lovely device. I thought I wouldn't use the video function but then I've found myself putting a couple of comedy DVDs on it and listening to them when I'm walking, but not watching them, so I suppose I did use it after all!

M

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

Don't feel you have to buy an Ipod just because they are the most popular.

The Ipod is very good, I'm not disputing that, but the other players which usually come out on par with the Ipod are the Creative Visions and the Iriver H10.

Obviously you'd have to compare them, see which one suits you most and choose a colour (depending on which player you buy).
Then have a look to see where you can get it cheapest.

SiMaster

sounds to me like you should get one of the new sony's - long battery life and very very robust. look into them.

i have an archos gmini400

I went through about two months of research before I got one - I still believe it's best on the market.

Good Points:

Plays movies with easy conversion, can store up to 80hours movies. Can plug Gmini directly into your TV to watch movies or play games on it. Colour Screen. Is a portable hard drive - so is plug and play no software needed. 20 Gb hard drive. Photo viewing software included. Charges from a wall socket (hand for travelling without computer). Small as an Ipod Aluminium Case Ability to play games. Has a CF card adapter on the side - plug up to 2Gb CF cards straight into it - handy for photography. built in microphone ability to upgrade to have a radio

This is the most important thing and what swung me to buy one........ the software has been hacked. This means a lot of freelance developers have written some amazing software for it.

At the moment I got these free programmes on mine

Game Gear emulator with 600 games Sega Master system Emulator with 1000 games Gameboy emulator with games Gameboy advance emulator with games Doom - yes the original doom plays on it. Suduku generator a book viewer i.e. I can download a book onto it and read on train stopwatch

there seems to be new programmes coming out everyday. have a look at https://www.gmini400.com this is the bible for Gmini - the forums have all the links to new software, modification and amazing support for problems.

there is only one slight drawback - battery life but there is a fix for it.

music = 10 hrs

video = 5 hrs

but like most Gmini owner I've stuck in a £10 Ipod battery it gives:

music 20hrs

video 10hrs

better than most on the market.

hope this helps

Alltheloginsaretakenappar

esuhl wrote:

I would ideally like something is fairly robust and easy to repair if anything goes wrong.

Well definitely don't go for an ipod then! Just have a look on ebay for "ipod faulty" or do a google search, they are notoriously bad for breaking. Archos and Creative are much better and generally are highly regarded.

But the best tip I can give you is to save some of your budget for a decent pair of headphones as pretty much all mp3 players will come with rubbish ones. I recently treated myself to a £25 pair of Sennheiser and was amazed by the difference. They also drain the battery less, the ones that came with my Archos av500 needed the volume at about 60-70 but now with the Sennheiser it's at 15-20

B33fy

My wife has an Ipod mini and I have a Creative Zen micro, we both agree the Creative has the better sound quality through the same headphones, would suggest you try listening to some before you decide