Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => The Knowledge => OT Knowledge => Topic started by: RainOrShine on 02 April, 2008, 01:07:44 pm
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My wife is on the lookout for an mp3 player. An ipod is no use; as we have no broadband we will not be downloading music (legal or otherwise), all the mp3 files will be from CDs.
The main criteria is the ability to transfer music onto the player without having to use some shoddy proprietary software - one which can be read/written directly via Explorer (or Konqueror) like a USB stick.
Any brands particularly recommended or to be avoided?
Cheers
RoS
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pick one you(or SWMBO) like, and use amarok to manage your MP3s and your player....
More usful a reply might be, Sony ones have a nice interface but are carp when it comes to placing files on (you can do it by straight drag and drop but don't count on the player being able to see them!)
The easiest ones for use that I have had have been the iRiver, SanDisk and generic ones.
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I think Sony are now drag and drop - mine sadly is the version prior to that.
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Ah, tis a coupla years old now, the one that I know (NW-A2000 iirc, the 20G purple large pebble one)
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J Random Knockoff gets my vote - I have a cheapy little Napa from PC World. USB, it's just a drive, and being cheap as chips, you don't worry about it so much as you would with a precious bit of iBling - great if it gets chucked in bike bags or sweaty jersey pockets.
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Thanks for the quick replies. The reason for my concern was that my neighbour bought one recently (not sure of brand - LG or Samsung I think), and the instructions stated that tracks could only be loaded via the included Windows bloatware and cannot be accessed as a flash drive. This turned out to be true in Windows, I didn't get the chance to check in Linux.
All my CD-ripping is likely to be done in Linux.
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The Sony ones are now cheap and good quality and behave as generic flash storage devices, no more Sonicstage horror !
Something like this (http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/shop/MP3_Players.1/Sony.76/NWZA818/Sony_NWZ-A818_8GB_MP3_Walkman.2619.html).
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J Random Knockoff gets my vote - I have a cheapy little Napa from PC World. USB, it's just a drive, and being cheap as chips, you don't worry about it so much as you would with a precious bit of iBling - great if it gets chucked in bike bags or sweaty jersey pockets.
Yup. 10 quid for 512MB, 15 quid for 1GB and about 20 quid for 2GB.
My old-style Creative Labs Muvo (although about 80 quid when new) is still going strong. And it takes a single AAA battery which means it's perfect for long bike rides.
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Another thought, what makes you think an iPod is no use ? You don't need a broadband connection to use an iPod it can equally well be used to store tracks ripped from CDs (which is what I do with mine).
The 160GB iPod classic is very tempting at the moment at around £200. You could even store a good selection of uncompressed albums with that much disc space.
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Another thought, what makes you think an iPod is no use ? ...
Shall I start?
Oh, this is YACF, not ACF. Stand down chaps, happyness only in here.
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Another thought, what makes you think an iPod is no use ? ...
Shall I start?
Oh, this is YACF, not ACF. Stand down chaps, happyness only in here.
Wasn't your grief with iTunes tho? Anapod avoids that particular hurdle.
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<la la la>
Am in a happy place.
(its all apple products btw)
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I like my Creative Zen - everything on it is ripped from my own CDs; I've never downloaded. The one crappy thing is that it didn't come with a charger, just the USB connector as if they expected me to only ever charge it via the computer. So I had to buy a separate charger, but that came with plug adaptors for just about every country I might wish to take it to.
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I have a fairly old Creative Zen Touch thats been pretty robust. The software to handle the contents is quite good ( a hell of a lot better than the Sony sonicstage but that's not difficult).
HTH
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I had a 1gb Sandisk Sansa. They were £10 the other day on Amazon, but I think the price has gone up. They also take a AAA battery. My only complaint was that I filled it up with music so I bought the 2gb version. There is no need to install software, just drag and drop. It takes MP3s and WMAs, also can record. ;D
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Creative Zen Touch here too. 40 GB. 3+ years old. Still fine - used most days.
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Another happy Creative Zen Touch user here :thumbsup:
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I have a Cowon Iaudio M5XL. 20M hard drive with 35hr battery life. This has excellent sound quality and can use any format you care to mention, FLAC, OGG, etc. It doesn't need any special software and just shows as an extra drive under both Windows & Linux.
Mine survived being bounced around on jeep tracks for 3 weeks in India and worked at up to 4800M so the normal trip to the office shouldn't kill it.
This model has been withdrawn and you can get it on Ebay for approx £100. If I was looking to replace it I'd go for their 16M solid state player with a 60hr battery life which you can get for £200 at http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk
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Creative Zen thingy. Great sound quality, and it fits under my hat. Bonus!
Shame it doesn't play .ogg though.
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another happy zen touch user here (bought in 2005)
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Creative Zen Stone - cheap and idiot proof!
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I have a samsung YP3, the interface on the unit is crap.
My daughter has a mini-IPOD thingy, there is almost no interface on that, so I wouldn't recommend that either!
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Another thought, what makes you think an iPod is no use ? You don't need a broadband connection to use an iPod it can equally well be used to store tracks ripped from CDs
Thanks I hadn't realised that, I thought it was tied to iTunes.
I like the look of the Creative Zen Stone some people have mentioned (only 10hrs battery life though?) I also like the look of the Sony NWS 703 (http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/-/595/803/-/3123611/Sony-NWS-703-Walkman-1GB-MP3-Player/Product.html?searchtype=genre) with noise cancelling earphones, especially at that discount. :)
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How about this one?
http://morgancomputers.co.uk/shop/detail.asp?ProductID=4575&CategoryID=201&SubCategoryID=255
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i have a 1Gb tiny stick thing from Tescos
It runs off a single AAA battery
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The Sony ones are now cheap and good quality and behave as generic flash storage devices, no more Sonicstage horror !
Something like this (http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/shop/MP3_Players.1/Sony.76/NWZA818/Sony_NWZ-A818_8GB_MP3_Walkman.2619.html).
But if that, then try it here (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-NWZA818-Video-Walkman-Battery/dp/B000VD2130/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1207242866&sr=8-1) - for £90
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I like my Creative Zen - everything on it is ripped from my own CDs; I've never downloaded. The one crappy thing is that it didn't come with a charger, just the USB connector as if they expected me to only ever charge it via the computer. So I had to buy a separate charger, but that came with plug adaptors for just about every country I might wish to take it to.
I have a Creative Zen Stone - cost under £20 from Amazon. I tend to charge it from the laptop, but we already had USB chargers for my and Mrs MV's phones so we can charge it from the mains. it's tiny and good-looking. It does drag-and-drop from Win or Linux too.
The only drawback is that it is only rechargeable, so it's OK for running etc - the initial charge has given me about 5 hours so far - but less so for a long audax.
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Here you go: http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/3435077/-/Product.html?searchstring=Sony+NWDB105WC+2GB+Drag+And+Drop+MP3+Player+(White)&searchsource=0&P36=7YLAMA (http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/3435077/-/Product.html?searchstring=Sony+NWDB105WC+2GB+Drag+And+Drop+MP3+Player+(White)&searchsource=0&P36=7YLAMA)
Reduced from £60 to £18 - 2G drag-and-drop Sony.
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Bargain of the day:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132947
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My 7 year old niece got this for her birthday. Wind up MP3 player (http://www.ecodigital.co.uk/estore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=14&products_id=92). It seems pretty easy to use, an easy drag and drop from the PC, and best of all once charged (mains or USB from PC) you can listen for as long as you like as you can wind it back up once it finally goes flat. This would be ideal for PBP etc as I don't think there's any way on long rides such as that to recharge iPods and other media players withinternal batteries. Oh, this can also charge your mobile phone back up.
If you want a screen + video watching capabilities I see that they've also got this. (http://www.ecodigital.co.uk/estore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=14&products_id=66)
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My 7 year old niece got this for her birthday. Wind up MP3 player (http://www.ecodigital.co.uk/estore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=14&products_id=92). It seems pretty easy to use, an easy drag and drop from the PC, and best of all once charged (mains or USB from PC) you can listen for as long as you like as you can wind it back up once it finally goes flat. This would be ideal for PBP etc as I don't think there's any way on long rides such as that to recharge iPods and other media players with internal batteries. Oh, this can also charge your mobile phone back up.
There is a this: Clicky (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/03/pedal_power.php), which allows the recharging of all manner of Stuffs from a dynamo.