MP3 Player

[Anon_F]

(After the sucess of the "Digital Camera" thread i'm back for advice on something else!)
My Creative mp3 player is now 10+ years old and only 512MB of storage so need a new 1!
Would like 2/4GB and a FM Radio would be handy as well?
Do you need batteries or do you plug them into the mains to charge?
Budget between £30 - £60?

Want to use it to listen music, talking books on & also the radio.

Any advice & yes i've looked at amazon & play but dont really know what make to go for!

 

[Abarbarian]

http://anythingbutipod.com/2009/08/sandisk-sansa-clip-plus-review/

http://anythingbutipod.com/2008/01/sandisk-sansa-view-review/

The clip is cheaper. I have the 8 GB View, owned it for a couple of years and it has been faultless. Cost me £45 I think. Got as it has a nice big screen, small by modern standards for a media player but I bought it for audio and wanted something easy to read. It does play vids and pics very well.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Wouldn't your mobile phone do all that?

2 to 4Gb is small space plus most phones now have an FM radio and a music player.

 

[Anon_F]

I try to keep my mobile for just calls & the odd internet, just in case work need me.
The idea for an mp3 player was to chill out to music & listening to the radio.

 

[floppybootstomp]

http://anythingbutipod.com/2009/08/sandisk-sansa-clip-plus-review/

http://anythingbutipod.com/2008/01/sandisk-sansa-view-review/

The clip is cheaper. I have the 8 GB View, owned it for a couple of years and it has been faultless. Cost me £45 I think. Got as it has a nice big screen, small by modern standards for a media player but I bought it for audio and wanted something easy to read. It does play vids and pics very well.

They look very good Abarb, makes me consider replacing my pair of I-Pods with one of those.

Let me see:

a) I'm sick of I-Tunes, it must be the crappest piece of software in the Universe, I recently updated my library on my 30Gb I-Pod and it was nothing but hassle. I tried really hard to like I-Tunes but even after five years I still don't like it. And of course you can't officially transfer files from the Ipod to your computer.

b) I have a pair of I-Pods, the 30Gb I bought when I went into Hospital five and a half years ago and I bought an 80Gb version to put all the disco tunes on, but I've never ever used it for that, so it's largely unused.

Some questions:

Can you store albums as playlists on the Sandisk?

Is it just a case of transferring files, audio and video, to the player and any memory card?

Does the player plug into a usb slot directly without having to use a card holder?

And if it does, does it see the player onboard memory and memory card as seperate hard disks or as one?

Will it take the Sandisk 32Gb SHDC card ok? Cos if so that's a 40Gb player in a very compact package.

I have one Ipod in an Apple bedside clock/radio and the other one is in a dock in the kitchen paired with an amp & speakers. Are there similar devices - clock radio and docking station - available for the Sandisk player?

 

[floppybootstomp]

Ackchurlee, looking at the prices used Ipods fetch on Ebay, I may as well stick with what I have for the sake of convenience.

I have a black 30Gb Fifth generation, bought new, very scratched, looks worn, centre of wheel click button is slightly recessed from it's original position, I'd be lucky to get 25 quid for it, despite fact I still have the box and all accessories and it works perfectly well. This model first introduced Oct '05

The other one is an 80Gb Ipod Classic, made 207-2009 and is in much better condition, has some very slight scratchy markings on rear of case and again has original box and all accessories. May get £60 for this if the bidding went ok.

Plus I have the dock for these in the kitchen and an Apple clock radio, so...... suppose I'll just have to suffer I-Tunes. And yes, I know I can use Winamp but it's very slow and almost as flakey as I-Tunes in my experience.

Oh well.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I try to keep my mobile for just calls & the odd internet, just in case work need me.
The idea for an mp3 player was to chill out to music & listening to the radio.

Sorry feckit, I seem to have gone off on a tangent here

The Sandisk player for £36 on Amazon looks like a goodie to me.

 

[Abarbarian]

For Flops.

http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4303

http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/l...FyY2hUeXBlIjoibWVudWZpbHRlciJ9fX19fSwiYyI6NX0.

I'd forgotten that mine had a card slot

My niece has a iPod and she uses Knoppix and some media player (Amrock I think) from that os to do stuff with her iPod and never uses iTunes.

 

[crazylegs]

Dont want to seem overbearing on Apple products but I have owned nearly every MP3 player a going out there over the years, and I don't like saying this but you just cannot beat an Apple Ipod!
Yeah iTunes is crap but you get used to it and other software used by other MP3 players can be just as bad if not worse, take Sony's MP3 software for example, thats probably the worst I have ever come across and wouldn't wish it on anyone..
Creative Zen's software is just as bad and totally user unfriendly, the only saving grace for Creative players is you can transfer files straight over to the device.
My old Sansa wasn't bad but the expansion slot for the SD card always showed up as an external device and because of this track data and covers didn't show unless you wanted to spend hours manually transferring them over, if you took the SD card out of the slot for any reason you then had to do this all over again, this became a damn pain in the end and I flogged it on ebay.

After using them all over the years the iPod is damn hard to beat, and you don't corner the market with a product if it ain't no good!

You pays ya money and takes ya choice as they say..

You could pick up a an 2GB iPod shuffle that would do all that you want Feckit for £37

http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?WT.mc_id=101689&sku=91242

 

[Taffycat]

Just to add my five penn'orth.... I'm still very happy with my Creative Zen with FM radio. It's now a few years old, but does all that I ask of it.

Mine is only a 4 GB version, but, I use SDHC cards, so can expand the memory as much as I want. I find this useful, because I listen to a range of stuff, including audio books, and can keep them separate from the music files - if I want to.

One can create playlists, or album lists, etc. It's very easy to download albums from Amazon, or to rip music from my own Cd collection.

The sound quality is good - usually I listen over Sennheiser headphones, or occasionally, I connect the Zen to external speakers; there is plenty of volume and the sound is still good, regardless of whether "Muse" is blasting forth, or the lead tenor in my copy of "The Pearl Fishers" opera.

The battery can be recharged either via the PC, or from the mains. I feel the latter is a tad quicker. You can also listen whilst recharging, because the mains lead (purchased separately) is quite long.

My only gripe is that it's not really practical to try listening to radio on the move - there is too much sound fluctuation (sorry, can't express this very technically, lol.) But it's fine if you listen when static.

Oh yes... and one other thing that annoys me, is that most audio equipment seems to come with a very neat iPod dock, but any other MP3 player has to be connected via a wire! I'm sure this is at least part of the reason for blasted iPods being so popular (with apologies to Flopps and Crazylegs, no offence intended guys.)

Anyway, in short, Creative still gets my vote.

 

[crazylegs]

Well There are so many iPods out there that most manufacturers saw the gap in the market for such items and went ahead and manufactured them, I have one and its superb, it charges on the dock as it plays and I can also swivel my iPod so I can watch Music DVD's, Movies, Skysports etc etc

 

[V_R]

Deja vue?

https://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/mp3-player-t4024912.html

 

[crazylegs]

Feckit what are you playin at...

 

[floppybootstomp]

Hmmm, Deja Vu indeed

Still, might not have bought anything back then and no harm in asking again in case the market has changed I suppose.

At least I'm saying much the same thing here as I am in that last thread, lol

Must admit, the I-pods are great if you can put up with these things: I-Tunes; short battery life on the standard battery; I-Tunes; fiddly battery replacement; I-Tunes and expensive compared to others.

And yes TC, it is annoying that dock manufacturers don't seem to cater for anything other than I-Pods. I can remember Creative having a range of docks and a clock-radio but it seems they've stopped doing them.

 

[Anon_F]

Deja vue?

https://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/mp3-player-t4024912.html

I shall PM you in advance V_R when posting in the future!

 

[V_R]

I shall PM you in advance V_R when posting in the future!

Thats not what i meant and you know it.....

 

[Anon_F]

Thats not what i meant and you know it.....

Sorry was having a bad day yesterday.
And i'm off to buy my new device probably on Sunday.
And some of you may be surprised in what i buy!!