MP3s

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

So I have this Sansa View. The case has slowly been opening though, allowing dust to pour in and ruin the screen bit by bit and losing connectivity with one side of the headphone entry. All in all, its a piece of ****.

 

So... what kind of MP3s do you guys have? This includes ipods or iphones I guess. I'm thinking of replacing mine so might as well hear what you guys have to say about it.

[Humodour]

iPod.

 

If you don't want an iPod for some reason (don't say iTunes - there's plenty of third party music managers), then stick with Creative - they really know their ****. The Zunes are just crap.

[Deraldin]

The Zunes are just crap.

 

No, no they aren't crap. They are actually pretty good media players.

 

What are you looking for when it comes to an MP3 player? Just music playback? Any other features important to you? How much space do you need?

[Gorgon]

My Creative player just died on me, or rather I accidentally stepped on it. Next one I'm going to get is a Hacha, Chinese made, open source. Ogg. and Flac. compatible, able to play common video formats, not that I care about that, well priced too, and a power supply capable of sustaining propper headphones, not those horrid ear plugs.

[Moose]

I have a Creative. Cheap plastic, but it does the job. Use your savings to get a decent pair of headphones, the stock ones are always poor.

[samm]

So I have this Sansa View. *snip* All in all, its a piece of ****.

 

So... what kind of MP3s do you guys have? This includes ipods or iphones I guess. I'm thinking of replacing mine so might as well hear what you guys have to say about it.

Well, my answer won't make you happy I have a Sansa Fuze and I must say it's a top notch piece of hardware.

 

The Good Things: Sound quality is very good. It plays all the music formats I want (flac, ogg and mp3). It was very affordable. Its storage of 8GB can easily be increased by adding an SD card. I like the looks and think it feels good. It runs very long without recharging (but I had a Discman before, so I'm not sure how it compares to other mp3 players).

 

Downsides: Yes, it may be cheaply manufactured, but I keep it safe and so far, nothing bad happened: Neither card-slot nor usb cable-slot come with a means to close them so I'm responsible to keep it free from dust. There is no gapless playback, at least not with ogg-files, not sure about mp3 and flac. Weak bass must be manually compensated with the EQ*. Menu-handling is not too intuitive. Run time is long, but only as long as you have the screen on minimal illumination and fast standby. You can't create playlists except "favourites", but it can play from playlists created in Winamp, for example. You cannot navigate by filename (or I haven't found out how), only by tags, so keep your files correctly tagged.

 

Unknown: I don't know how video-playback or textfiles are handled, because I don't use those features.

 

There seem to be a lot of downsides, but that's only because I'm a critical person so I really wrote everything I noticed Most of them can be circumvented by a small effort. The only thing that bugs me personally is the lack of gapless playback. I would recommend this player to everyone with a budget that doesn't allow for something like a Cowon for its sound quality, battery life, format support and expandability.

 

 

 

*: I'm using my small Sennheiser PX-200, which has a less dominant bass reproduction than my previous pair of PX-100. So maybe it's not Sansa's fault, but my being used to (overly) powerful basses.

Edited June 17, 2009 by samm

[Gorgon]

One thing that annoyed me about Creative is the lack of folder navigation. Rather than just sticking your music folders on the player, you had to neatly arrange everything according to album and artist meta data. Can't complain about the sound though.

 

With mp3 players the sound quality depends to a large extend on the capacity of the power supply, the 'mini' players should be avoided for this reason.

[samm]

I think the Fuze could be counted as a 'mini'-player (though it's reasonably larger than an iPod shuffle or a Clip), but as long as you don't plug 300 Ohm headphones, you're fine. I think with the high impedance, the battery wouldn't last long, but don't see how it would affect sound quality - just the volume. Is there a mistake in my reasoning?

 

[edit]

On second thought - the volume is probably what you're getting at - if you have to use maximum volume of the player, and the player doesn't have a good amplifier, you'll get distortion.

Edited June 17, 2009 by samm

[Pidesco]

If you can afford it, this is godly.

 

If you can't, go for the Archos 5 instead which is almost as godly.

[Gfted1]

If you can afford it, this is godly.

 

If you can't, go for the Archos 5 instead which is almost as godly.

 

 

Beautiful but you aint kidding on the price!

[Deraldin]

If you can afford it, this is godly.

 

If you can't, go for the Archos 5 instead which is almost as godly.

 

It's also freakin' huge.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

If you can afford it, this is godly.

 

If you can't, go for the Archos 5 instead which is almost as godly.

 

It's also freakin' huge.

 

With reason though. That does look godly, but if its the size of a poptart, for example, it might become a bit annoying. Also, I don't know many people who need 160GB.

[Pidesco]

If you can afford it, this is godly.

 

If you can't, go for the Archos 5 instead which is almost as godly.

 

It's also freakin' huge.

 

 

Well, a bit, but the Archos 5 is much smaller.

[Pidesco]

If you can afford it, this is godly.

 

If you can't, go for the Archos 5 instead which is almost as godly.

 

It's also freakin' huge.

 

With reason though. That does look godly, but if its the size of a poptart, for example, it might become a bit annoying. Also, I don't know many people who need 160GB.

 

 

I wouldn't say "need", but I do want the 160GB, or even the 250GB model.

[Tigranes]

I generally go for Samsung, because on price, sound quality and functionality they're basically ipods... but don't look as butt-ugly and don't need you to put up with the idiocy that is iTunes. But then, I have some Korean music as well, so that was another factor.

 

As with anything music, I say you need to have a listen before you buy.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Its not really about the sound quality for me. I just don't want it to start falling apart in my hands after 6 months of use.

[Gorgon]

I generally go for Samsung, because on price, sound quality and functionality they're basically ipods... but don't look as butt-ugly and don't need you to put up with the idiocy that is iTunes. But then, I have some Korean music as well, so that was another factor.

 

As with anything music, I say you need to have a listen before you buy.

The Samsung I had kept crashing, also the touch pad operation was horrible, many many times worse than actual buttons. I liked the folder navigation though.

[Moose]

One thing that annoyed me about Creative is the lack of folder navigation. Rather than just sticking your music folders on the player, you had to neatly arrange everything according to album and artist meta data. Can't complain about the sound though.

 

I never had this problem, must be your model.

[Azure79]

I just use the 1 gb MP3 player from Creative. No hassle, no middleware, drag and drop what I want, delete what I don't want. Cheap and reliable.

[Gorgon]

My Hacha arrived just now, I'll let you know what I think of it in a few hours. Usually Chinese made doesn't scream competence, but I've heard enough good about the player not to be swayed by preconceptions.

[Gorgon]

Well it's a lot bigger than I expected, video watching might improve I guess, but I can't imagine ever viewing anything on a palm sized screen, other than I dunno, long commutes, but isen't that what netbooks are for. The battery is necessarily bigger because of the screen requirements which is a bonus.

 

I suppose on the upside it can handle Youtube and other streamed formats.

 

It comes with TV out and stereo hookup cables, which is handy for parties, and a compulsory set of crappy earplugs, data cable, the wolds smallest detachable speakers, and a recharger (some players aren't sold with a popper charger and if the battery is full out they won't recharge on a USB cable)

 

I can't do much with it for now since the battery requires a full 12 hours on first charge. I suppose using the charger might be a lot faster, but the manual with its humorously Chinese English doesn't mention it one way or the other.

[Gorgon]

In order to enjoy more fun from your media player and make it to be your pocket fairy, please take attention under below:

 

1.As lithium polymer buttery is used in our machine, so please keep the charging time in 4-7 hours after it be under activation for extending it

[Pidesco]

Oooh, it's buttery.

[Gorgon]

So far it can play anything I throw at it, except .flv files. The sample .flv files on it play just fine though. Firmware issue maybe. I could just convert them but that takes time. Sound is just as good as my creative player, It can even play a little louder, 19mw. (what is that, mini watt ?) on each channel. It's cheaper, has a bigger screen, more battery life and can play FlAC and .ogg files. I'm pretty happy with it.

[Pidesco]

It's milliwatt.

 

 

Duh.