Apple iPod vs Sony Network Walkman

[MiKe_HawK]

So I was going through my music files and realized that I had roughly 6000 songs which is just about 18 GB of music and Im running out of memory. So I decided to get with the times and invest in an ipod. So I was talking to my friend at work and he told me about this new sony mp3 player he got. He said it was better simply on the basis that it has a better file compression method. The software converts mp3 files into ATRAC3plus files rather than whatever apple uses...he also claims that the audio files maintain better quality in this format.
This is what he says. I dont know much of anything that has to do with electronics but I do want the best and I dont feel like spending $500 on an ipod when sony is offering the something superior for $300 (not that I would pay retail anyways...ebay all the way)
Someone enlighten me. Here are the links for the products. Im pretty sure this is the mp3 player he has:

Sony - http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...ayers_Network#
Apple - http://www.apple.com/ipod/ipod.html

Enlighten me!

[K2Grey]

He is wrong.

First of all, transcoding mp3 to another format cannot increase sound quality. It can only lower it. Sound quality which is lost when encoding from CD to mp3 cannot be regained other than by getting the CD and encoding from it again.

Second, good preset LAME mp3, such as LAME alt-present-standard, is indistinguishable from lossless unless you have a portable music system alot more expensive than most have. If you go up to mp3 alt-present-insane it gets real hard regardless of the quality of your system.

Third, iPod supports Apple Lossless. This is bit for bit indistinguishable from CD.

Fourth, boycott Sony because of their copy protection on their CDs which installs software onto your computer without your permission or notice and makes it vulnerable to viruses and exploits and engages in communication with Sony and cannot be easily manually removed.

Having said this there are, IMHO, better mp3 players than iPod (Creative stuff owns iPod from space/cost ratio, iAudio X5 has better sound quality). iPod can be rigged up to have a line out to use with a portable amp but 99% of people wont use it.

[Jerome Scuggs]

has apple ever tried to install a rootkit into your soul?

i think the choice is obvious

[Emaho]

Nano 4 lyfe!

[Rab]

i wouldnt get iPod... because it's apple.
i've always been impressed with Sony walkman type things.
i bought a creative and it's done the job just fine.

perhaps

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=94370

or

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=99193

[Mulkero]

Get iRiver.

The thing about iPods I hate is that you always need to install apple software to get it work and it doesn't support linux at all (at least not to my knowledge). I'm using my 4gb creative muvo2 as a removable hard drive and I haven't installed the software it came with ever, because it would probably suck anyway. I like my open source rip software much more (and it doesn't take 200mb of my hard drive).

[Displaced]

mulk, you dont need to...
dl the drivers from the web and use it as a removable hd without installing iTunes.

i was thinking of an iRiver but once i tested it, i didnt like it as much as the iPod, so the iPod is what i ended up takeing home.

very strudy too, work in construction, its popped out of my pocket on a few occasions and still works perfectly.

[ZeUs!!]

Judging from the responses in this thread:

Everyone's got their own opinion, do whatever the fuck you want

[Stabwound]

Everyone is just going to suggest whatever mp3 player they shelled out $300 for.

[DoTheFandango]

I garuntee that you won't even be able to tell the difference between mp3 and LAME mp3 or even FLAC or AAC.

My cousin was born with perfect pitch and has extreme audio sensory. Anything he hears get processed in some way. He noticed a small difference in FLAC and mp3, but he actually said that he thinks that it doesn't matter either way.

BTW, the 30 GB iPod is only 300 dollars and holds nearly 8,000 songs in 128-bit AAC (bigger than mp3) encoding.

[K2Grey]

DoTheFandango: yeah, but what equipment is using to listen with?

Although, granted the difference between FLAC and LAME aps mp3 is small enough that people are unlikely to notice it unless they focus real hard on hearing the artifacts (assuming they are capable of hearing them in the first place), which kinda defeats the purpose of listening to music in the first place.

[DoTheFandango]

Exactly. I believe he was using my BOSE Quiet Comfort Headphones and it was on a codec'd version of iTunes.

[Bioture]

Everyone is just going to suggest whatever mp3 player they shelled out $300 for.

hmm 300... sounds familiar...

OH WAIT

MY IPOD

[Tone]

like 95 or so % of computer users, i have a PC. I would like a player that can play 2-Pass VBR WMAs

[Epinephrine]

Don't waste money! I shelled out $82 to get my Rio at Costco! It's just as good and no one wants to steal it!