mp3 players

[Citizen Bleys]

That's it. I've had it, I'm sick of wagging a big, bulky CD player around in a fanny pack (Which makes me look like I just walked out of 1983, and breaks the image of a formal suit), going through more batteries than a fat girl's vibrator and burning all kinds of throwaway CDs. It's time to get an mp3 player.

Problem is, I have no idea what's good. I'm definitely buying locally (Future Shop sucks, but at least I don't have to wait for shipping)

Here's what I'm looking at:

MPIO
RCA Lyra (I know a guy who has one, and he says it's great, but I've had problems with RCA in the past)
Rio Fuse (This is the one I'm favoring, although the price will go up by the time I'm ready to buy. It'll be $160, which still makes it $20 cheaper than the Lyra)

If anybody has any of these and can let me know what they're like--Or has a reccomendation--I'd appreciate the feedback.

No links to newegg, please. I *know* they have great prices. They also do not ship to Canada, and I usually get at least three links to newegg every time I ask for product feedback on an internet message board. Anybody posting a link to newegg will be orally violated. Thank-you.

(I'm posting this at multiple message boards, so if you see it more than once, don't whine )

[Dr Unne]

What's good depends on what you want and how much money you want to spend. I have a <a href="http://www.nomadworld.com/products/muvo/">Muvo</a>.

Good points:

<ul><li>Made by Creative. I like them.</li><li>Small as heck. You can use the thing for a key chain.</li><li>Uses one AAA battery. Can't get much better than that.</li><li>Can be used as a plain old FAT32 USB flash drive. But most MP3 players can, I imagine.</li><li>Works fine in Linux.</li><li>Less than $100.</li></ul>
Bad points:

<ul><li>Small as heck. Mine's only 64MB. But new ones are more.</li><li>Only plays MP3s (and maybe WMA, but who cares). No OGGs.</li><li>Mine has no LED display (but new ones have them, mine's old), and no way to play songs in random order (I think new ones have this too though).</li></ul>

You can get something cheap and little like mine, or get something with 10 GB hard drive that just happens to have an MP3 decoder in it for a couple hundred bucks. Depends what you want.

[Citizen Bleys]

Creative players available locally:

Nomad (I like this one. The price is a little high, though. Same as the Lyra)
MuVo NX, which I think is just like yours, but newer.

What I like about the Lyra and the Nomad is that the memory's expandable. Not that I ever figure I'm going to need much more than 128 MB to store a few mp3s. Shuffle's godly, and I don't know if the Rio has that...although, unless there's a typo on the Futile Shop's page, the Rio is the only one that uses USB 2.0. For better features, though, I think I can wait the 90 extra seconds it would take to transfer 100 megs of MP3s via USB 1.1.

The Fuse goes 18 hours on one AAA alkaline battery, which speaks well of it, but I'll have to look into the Nomad's "recharge" feature. If it'll let me recharge my existing NiMH batteries, that's a bonus.

I also really like the headphones that come with the Rio -_-. It's hard to find decent headphones for retail in Moncton. And I *hate* the Lyra's headset.

The biggest selling point on the MuVo for me is that it's not as hideously expensive as the others. (The MPIO's kind of crappy, and it's the only one cheaper, since the Rio will be going up in price before I have the cash to buy one)

[Flying Mullet]

Is there any reason that you haven't looked into an iPod?

[Citizen Bleys]

I hate Apple and hear all kinds of bad comments about iPods.

It's a FireWire device, isn't it? I like USB more. Sure, I have FireWire ports, but what happens when I go visit someone? I'm the only one I know with FireWire.

EDIT: Plus, I bet it doesn't work in Linux. I mean, I have an XPee box now, but somewhere down the line, I'm going to want to set up a home network, and that's *definitely* going to include Linux-based machines.

[Dr Unne]

The headphones that came with my Muvo were completely worthless. That's to be expected.

Also, my Muvo came with a cheap Japanese battery of some sort. When I tried to use it, my MP3 player got so hot I thought it was going to explode. Gotta watch out for that.

I wouldn't get an iPod either. Way too expensive.

[Flying Mullet]

Originally posted by Citizen Bleys
EDIT: Plus, I bet it doesn't work in Linux. I mean, I have an XPee box now, but somewhere down the line, I'm going to want to set up a home network, and that's *definitely* going to include Linux-based machines.

Yeah, I'd be surprised if they worked on Linux too. They just came out with support and an interface for Windows about three months ago.

[Dr Unne]

Rhythmbox for Linux just announced that it now has iPod support. Just read it a few hours ago.

[Citizen Bleys]

Holy crap, those suckers are expensive!

I don't need 40 GB of MP3s. I don't even need 128 MB. I very seldom fill a CD when I burn one, and I'm pretty sure you can fit the mp3s from pretty much any CD ever made into 64 MB at 128 kbps.

Bugger iPod.

That Nomad is looking better and better all the time, but the price...ugh. And I want those bloody Sennhaiser MX300 earbuds. Maybe even enough to buy them online, separately, if I don't get the Rio.

[Yamaneko]

The iPod battery is internal. Regular use depletes the recharchable battery in about 12-18 months. You then need to buy a $60 kit to replace the battery. Once you open the damn thing you void the warranty and risk damaging the HD. I read it all in Popular Science.

[Citizen Bleys]

Yeah, the Nomad uses AA batteries, and the MuVo and the Rio use AAA. I can't remember what the Lyra uses, but it's either AA or AAA.

I've got those already. NiMH, even.

[Endless]

I personally use a Sony MD player now, and find it great. Sure, the regular MD players have limitations like CD players (80 mins/MD now) but the newest models now have support for compressed music (Mp3 and WMA, and also WAV, if you're into disk space eating ), which allows for good quantities of music to be carried around, plus a fairly good battery (rechargable included) use (they claim 48h of play with an AA batt). Also, since it uses MDs, you can prepare as many as you need, and carry them around (a MD is 2"1/2) depending on your needs, and allows being able to change what you listen to even when not at home, and also uses USB to connect to your PC.
Price range goes from about $150 to $350.
Blank MDs are at about 30 euros a box of ten.

Try to get feedback from people who have these. If I had the money, I know I'd get one and would tell you, but alas I only can use my old MD player that doesn't have these fancy features/bells/whistles. I mean, mine's first generation, from 1998 (and it still works like a charm, minus the remote that I broke).

[Citizen Bleys]

Nah, I don't want to go MD. For one thing, MP3 players have no moving parts, and for another, I won't have to keep buying MDs--Just use the mp3 player's onboard memory, since 128 MB is all I'll ever need.

[Endless]

MDs are rewritable. But I can see the reason behind the no moving part, even though you have to keep shaking the players long and hard now to make them skip, I suppose it's still more vulnerable to dropping.

[Citizen Bleys]

Well, since Unne's positive review of the MuVo was corroborated by others on other forums, I settled on the 256 MB model of the MuVo NX (I paid for the extra memory, since it doesn't have expansion cards like the Nomad IIc), and so far, I'm extremely impressed with it. The sucker's tinier than a tadpole's tonker, has room to spare, a nice LCD display which supports ID3 tags, backlight, shuffle, and functions as a USB flash drive.

I emailed Creative and asked if the MuVo NX supported mp3PRO. They said no, but so far, the player has played every mp3PRO file I threw at it.

Excellent deal. Expensive as hell, but worth it.