mp3 player suggestions and questions

[GroundZero3]

okay i was looking thru tigerdirect magazine and i came across to advertisments for mp3 players that interested me. the first one is here http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-Details.asp?sku=T675-1002

the second is here http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-Details.asp?sku=F250-1000

but i think there is a mistake either in the magazine or the web site. for the second player in the magazine it sayz about one hour of music and on the web it sayz 30 minutes. need to call them up about that. Is there anything special i should be looking into when consider buying one??

thanxs

JaYsin

[Gomer]

Do not buy!!!

Wait until CD/MP3 players are better developed. There should be a boom on them within the next six months. It is a much better item as it can play up to 10 or so hours of music. There are some on the market already but they are first generation players.... there are still some bugs to be worked out. Price range $100-&250 or so. Wait man.

[howste]

They're both pretty bottom of the line models. Keep in mind that at the usual quality recording, MP3s take about 1MB per minute. The first one listed there would be able to hold only about 16 minutes of music. The other would hold about 32 minutes. They can hold more, but only if the MP3s are recorded at a lower sound quality. I didn't see anything mentioned for either about add-on storage such as flash memory, etc. Even if they did, it costs about $100 for 64MB. I'd think twice before I bought one with such a limited capacity. Also, Nothing is mentioned about how you download music into them. Usually either parallel port or USB. Obviously USB will be much quicker. You should find out which a player uses before you buy anything.

Steve

[dgardner]

Looking at the two links there, they are both, pretty **** as far as portable mp3 players go. I have a Diamond Rio500 portable mp3 player which has 64meg on board ram and is expandable to 128meg, but that is changing as new firmware updates come out frequently. I have had no problems with it and it is USB upload. So upload time is not much. I dont know about cd/mp3 players but if we are talking portable cd players that will play cd's loaded with mp3's then I am not that impressed by it as you will be open to things like skipping again, and also you will need a cd-burner to get the full benefit! I like my Rio, its small light, has amazing battery life and top quality sound. Though I recommend you buy a set of decent earphones for better quality. As the ones which came with mine were ****!
But as they say above, its a new market and it changes by the day. Its up to you, if you want one buy it!

Also 10 hours of music, well I would never listen to that in one stint anyway, what you really want is a player with cheap changable media!!!

~Dave~

[Gomer]

Actually most of the CD/MP3 players are skip proof. Media is around $.40 a disc. That is pretty cheap changeable media. They will also play CD/RW so you can use them over and over. Few people will listen to ten hours of music straight, but you can organize the mp3's in playlist fashion. So you could have the equivalant of a ten disc cd changer in your pocket. Also, to the best of my knowledge, cd burners and MP3's travel hand in hand. That has been my experience with them. Take in to the consideration that you can get a top of the line CDRW drive for $130, which has utility far beyond the simple act of writing MP3's to a cd, and CD/MP3 players still come out on top. How many songs can you hold on your Rio recorded at a bitrate of say, 192 kbps? And what did you pay for it?

[dgardner]

At 192 Kbps on my Rio err not much, but on the other hand you couldnt store 10 hours of music on a CD at 192 Kbps either, you looking at more like 7.5 Hours, but on the other hand, I defy you to tell me you could honestly tell the difference between 192 and 128 Kbps on my portable MP3 player, if you consider at the same time that, when your actually listening to an mp3 on a portable player your likely to have background noise i.e. cars, lorries, people, etc... also quality is inhibited by the earphones, unless your prepared to fork out big bucks for a proper set of earphones. At the end of the day, whether I had a portable mp3 player or cd/mp3 player, I would still probably re-compress my mp3's for it at 64 kbps or 96kbps because I personally cant tell the difference through a set of head phones.
But hearing your argument, I may one day buy a cd/mp3 player. My only problem with them is size. I like something that fits in my trouser pocket and they dont.

~Dave~

P.s. My Rio 500 cost me £50 (approx $75) but thats only because I bought it on one of those monthly payment schemes, and the company I bought it through went bankrupt. Oh well there loss my gain http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif