Mp3 players and headphones

[phata$$]

Do the iAudio products work with iTunes or do u have to drag and drop files?

[project dragon]

dammit, why didnt anyone mention iAudio to me before i bought my mp3 player? : (

i got a creative zen 8gb, but im happy with it at the moment.. i opted out of getting a bigger hdd because i really dont need 30/40/x gbs anyways. but man, iAudio seems so nice to get now : (

[phata$$]

hmm i just found out that it does not support ID3-Tags.

[Jerome Scuggs]

you don't need good headphones unles your mp3's are uncompressed

but if they are, i roll with grado, it's a bit pricey but stereophile mag jizzes all over every grado headphone product, and for good reason. i have recently upgraded from the SR80 to the RS2...both are fantastic.

[K2Grey]

IAudio stuff in general uses a file-tree system. I.e. folders and drag-and-drop (if that's the term you want to use).

There's no such thing as an uncompressed mp3. The MP3 format is by definition a lossy compression format. Even FLAC, ALAC, etc. are compressed. And when you actually play the thing everything gets uncompressed to WAV anyway.

iPod is not good for video (too short battery life). Otherwise, it is fine. I use the Rockbox firmware which moves things over to a file-tree system, with gaplss playback, and support for some more audio formats (no video though). In my experience, the price is similar to that of other mp3 players, so it's a safe choice. iAudio X5, Creative ZVM etc. are all also fine. It's not that hard to make a decent player and it's not necessary to elevate your personal hero by trashing the others.

I've always been very dubious on these claims of sound quality given that no effort is made to check that the EQ and all DSP effects are off (like mach3bass, bbe on iAudio players) or to volume match (even 1, 2db might be perceivable, but as SQ change, not as volume change). But then again I go to a forum where people contradict each other daily, fads of the month are common, and everyone is a self appointed expert, so it's not unexpected if I get skeptical of such claims.

Grado headphones in general are not circumaural, they go on the ear but don't cover it. They also feel like they're from the 1940s and IME are uncomfortable and have poor build quality.

I'm not sure if the super.fi3 counts as being absolutely sick or amazing. But then again I have Westone UM1s and they're not stellar either. Those adjectives are better applied to stuff like Westone ES2, UE 10pro; but it's something of a waste of money unless you actually use them in situations where the increased SQ matters.

EiG: It's very much useful to have thousands of files on a small player. For one thing your typical mp3 player is much smaller than a CD player. Second, let's say you can get 5x mp3s onto 1 CD, that's still many CDs you would need to carry around in order to get the same storage. Much bulkier and more inconvenient.

You might say that no one can actually listen to 30GB worth of stuff on one trip, but not all of one's music is the same. Since I went from 1GB to 30GB the music that I pick to listen to has varied grealy and if I was still using my flash player I'm pretty sure that 95% of the time the music I wanted to listen to wouldn't be available to me. Which somewhat defeats the whole point of carrying a PDAP with you.

[K2Grey]

I know technology develops wquickly, whcih is why i'm starting my own thread rather than looking up old ones.

I'm looking for a 40gb-60gb mp3 player. is the ipod still the way to go?

and I'm also looking for some good headphones- ones that aren't too big but still cover your ear, any suggestions?

By the way, your question can't really be answered unless you phrase your question better.

What do you want out of it?

Do you want ID3 database or file-tree system, do you care about video playback, do you care about image/text, do you want gapless playback, etc.

And with the headphones, do you need them to go around the ear, or do you mind having the pads resting on the ears but not going around. And why not in-ear-monitors.

[RATTY...]

The IAUDIO X5 60GB player looks like shit, it prolly is too.

Oh, and if you consider to buy the 40 GB Ipod, don't, buy the 60 GB instead, it got more battery life.

[NaiLed]

i only want my mp3 player to play mp3s, but i'd also like to be able to make playlists. i also don't really mind the pad headphones; i want ones that are portable, and i can wear while walking etc

cheers k2, appreciate the posts

[Scurvy]

if at this point you're interetsed in an iPod at all, i'd wait.
they're releasing their latest version soon. it could be another nano or some shit like that, but it might be worth seeing whats coming out.

[RATTY...]

if at this point you're interetsed in an iPod at all, i'd wait.
they're releasing their latest version soon. it could be another nano or some shit like that, but it might be worth seeing whats coming out.

Yeah.

http://www.itavisen.no/php/art.php?id=310897

What they mainly say in this article is that a new Nano may be out, with an aluminium coat like the mini and 8 GB. I'm prolly gonna get this and give the old Nano to my little sis.

(rumour) From AppleInsider.com, known for having sources inside Apple.

[Eric is God]

EiG: It's very much useful to have thousands of files on a small player. For one thing your typical mp3 player is much smaller than a CD player. Second, let's say you can get 5x mp3s onto 1 CD, that's still many CDs you would need to carry around in order to get the same storage. Much bulkier and more inconvenient.

You might say that no one can actually listen to 30GB worth of stuff on one trip, but not all of one's music is the same. Since I went from 1GB to 30GB the music that I pick to listen to has varied grealy and if I was still using my flash player I'm pretty sure that 95% of the time the music I wanted to listen to wouldn't be available to me. Which somewhat defeats the whole point of carrying a PDAP with you.

I have maybe 700 MP3's on my computer which is more than all of my friends combined. I have never felt the need to burn more than 50-60 songs on to a CD at one time. CD's cost like $0.30 these days and I just create new CD's based on the songs I'm currently in the mood for. I just don't understand the need to carry around that many songs at one time. If you like every kind of music you can still make a CD with 25 rap, classical, rock songs. Do people actually store 10,000 songs and just put it on random? If people want to spend that much money on an MP3 player, it's their business. But I doubt many people actually require all the space or features. Reminds me of grade 12 (8 years ago) when a friend of mine spent $1,500 on a handheld computer that he basically used to play chess.

[NaiLed]

Do people actually store 10,000 songs and just put it on random?

sometimes, yes

[phata$$]

Damn after reading this thread I decided to get my first mp3 player. So I considered getting that iAudio X5 untill my friend said he can get me an iPod for $250 (30gb video). Sure, I only have about 8gb worth of music but my friend said that you can use it as an external hard drive, so all that extra space could be useful. I might go with the default earpieces that come with the iPod because sound quality isn't much of a factor for me.

[K2Grey]

I have maybe 700 MP3's on my computer which is more than all of my friends combined. I have never felt the need to burn more than 50-60 songs on to a CD at one time. CD's cost like $0.30 these days and I just create new CD's based on the songs I'm currently in the mood for. I just don't understand the need to carry around that many songs at one time. If you like every kind of music you can still make a CD with 25 rap, classical, rock songs. Do people actually store 10,000 songs and just put it on random? If people want to spend that much money on an MP3 player, it's their business. But I doubt many people actually require all the space or features. Reminds me of grade 12 (8 years ago) when a friend of mine spent $1,500 on a handheld computer that he basically used to play chess.

I dunno if putting 10,000 songs on random is a great idea. I've never used random playback myself. But usually, I want to hear a specific song, or album, or piece, as opposed to a genre.

Now if your friends are getting 60GB mp3 players when they have a total of 100 mp3s on their computer (or they are one of those people who download 20k mp3s and listen to about 20 of them) I can understand why you'd be somewhat annoyed. For sure I've heard various horror stories such as people wearing iPod earbuds which aren't connected to anything on the other end for the sake of fashion, or having a xGB iPod that has 15 songs on it, or brand worship of Apple (although the contrarian "anything that's popular must be crap" deal is also annoying), which don't really paint a good picture of the intelligence of the human race.

But $300~ is alot of money, you'd think most people would spend a little time to consider the purchase.

[K2Grey]

i only want my mp3 player to play mp3s, but i'd also like to be able to make playlists. i also don't really mind the pad headphones; i want ones that are portable, and i can wear while walking etc

cheers k2, appreciate the posts

I actually don't know about playlists, since I've never used them. I know for sure the iPod has various permutations of them, but am not sure about others (I would assume everyone has them, though).

For headphones, how about Sennheiser PX100?

Edit: If you care about gapless playback at all (although the gap is very short on iPod) you will have to go for an iPod and then stick the Rockbox firmware on it. Either that or resort to Rio Karma (which is discontinued and is of dubious reliability) or get a MD/ATRAC player since nothing else to my knowledge supports that.