So , Crimbo is coming ...

[Kurashima]

And the wallets getting fat
but which MP3 player is "Where its at"
Should i buy Apple , do IPods still rule
If i buy Creative, will i feel a fool?


So dudes, budget is £200, and the primary purpose of the player will be for me in the gym. Do i buy a solid state player and accept the limitations of maybe 512 meg / 1 gig , or do i buy a hard drive based player and get my full 20/40 gig? And should I buy something that doesnt have proprietary software so i can download my old MP3's onto it (i dunno if the new IPod's actually only play I-Tunes stuff, and thats whats held me back from buying one).

Thoughts gentlemen?

[NEWSBOT3]

(edit, wasnt thinking properly)

my housemate has an iriver, and thats rather cool.

creative stuff is a bit overpricced

[JC]

I was thinking about making a thread about this as i'm after an mp3 player too. I have a similar budget too.

http://www.dabs.com/uk/channels/hard...quicklinx=30T5
http://www.dabs.com/uk/channels/hard...quicklinx=39TX

These seem like decent non-IPOD offers to me, but i'm no expert so i'll listen to any advice given in here .

[jerome]

Personally, I got the 30gig creative (which you can get 4quid cheaper at http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Product...09&GroupID=378 !:/ heh). It does more or less everything I wanted it to, would`ve liked better headphones (in terms of look, as the colour combination is downright weird.) and maybe more customization & accessibility via the software etc, so you can directly create playlists on your comp etc. All in all, I like it.

[Stew]

I have an iriver and it does everything I want it to do.
When I was looking around I saw it won a few awards and feedback from people that had it was always v. good (besides a few random complaints). It was £250 though.

[The_Fish]

I saw a while back Sony were bringing out a nice mp3 player, dunno how much it is, but Sony are far cooler than Apple, and everyone has an iPod, so I'd be different and buy the sony one.

[SilverSmoke]

My 30GB creative Zen Xtra is probably one of the best purchases I ever did in my entire life.

[Androme]

Originally Posted by Kurashima

i dunno if the new IPod's actually only play I-Tunes stuff, and thats whats held me back from buying one).

if that is the case I have a pc format magazine from few months ago that let you play ANY MP3 on your iPod by using a Winamp 3 plugin 2 add the songs to your iPod regardless of whether it's from iTunes or not

but most of the other people I know said they've never had the problem with just adding on MP3's straight to it regardless as to whether it's off iTunes or not

if you need me to go dig it up along with the name of the plugin on the CD I can

[NEWSBOT3]

Originally Posted by Flavius

iriver owner

a++ would buy again

this is not ebay

[mist]

if you're wanting it for the gym, arn't moving parts a problem? i assume you actually move and stuff :P

-mist

[Kurashima]

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Product...28&GroupID=378

Does anyone know if MuVo's are solid state or Hard drive based, as that doesnt seem to indicate.

If its Solid State, and 1.5 gig , thats a good price.

[jerome]

Why don`t you just get the 30gb creative zen xtra for £5~ more ?

[Kurashima]

Originally Posted by _ryzekiel_

Why don`t you just get the 30gb creative zen xtra for £5~ more ?

Because on a running machine , a solid state MP3 player doesnt skip, A hard drive based one does.

[Knight Theamion]

i have a 256 mb player which does it's job since i have my music collection on my pc and usually i am in 'moods' so i just put a few albums on it an go 'out'

but i'd go for a mini ipod if i bought a new one

[Dante Hicks]

The larger muvo is a HDD (a bit like the mini-iPod) I think.

I know the 128MB/256MB ones are solid state though.

HDD players don't generally skip though. I have gone running for 45 minutes with a Creative Zen with no skipping (admittedly I managed to break it the other day though, heh)

[jerome]

Originally Posted by Kurashima

Because on a running machine , a solid state MP3 player doesnt skip, A hard drive based one does.

I have no sorts of problem whilst jogging & listening to it, though. It`s pretty static.

[roadrunner_0]

i thought that the HDD based ones generally buffered quite a lot of data to avoid skipping?

[Obliterate]

I've never had any problems with my iPod mini skipping, and I use it often while cycling/jogging. It did break once though, but I found Apple a very good company to deal with whilst getting a free replacement - they pick it up and send it back by courier all free of charge.

Also, I don't know what you mean by "only playing iTunes stuff" - do you mean only play music of a certain file type? I've never had a problem with this as all my music is mp3, although I think you're right in that iPods can only play mp3's or aac's. (iTunes can convert .wmv files into .mp3, though)

[SilverSmoke]

Originally Posted by Kurashima

Because on a running machine , a solid state MP3 player doesnt skip, A hard drive based one does.

I am not too sure how wild you want to get with a Zen but I use my HD based mp3 player every damn day, I walk with it, I run with it when I am late for a bus, I toss it around in my sleep while listening music etc, it never ever skipped a single time for me. Also, I already dropped it on the floor for two times from a rather large height, it migh look a bit like a brick but it's also solid as a brick.

[Androme]

Forget both. The Rio Karma has earned the top notch award over the Zen in many magazines.