mp3 players quick ?

[LadyCrimson]

Do mp3 players these days (no video) allow you pick/arrange what order to play the songs in? eg, not just random shuffle or only what order you upload them in? I mean you can upload in the order you want to play a bunch of things one day, but then you'd have to do it all over again if you want a different order or change /add a few songs the next day, and that's annoying. Or do mp3 players just not do that...

 

If they don't, sounds like a player that uses external memory where you could have series of memory sticks for each set would be the solution?

 

Tech specs don't usually tell you what kind of interface you get...at most they say 'random shuffle'.

 

Edit: ie hubs doesn't want to have to scroll through hundreds of songs that are on 'top' in order to "play" all the single tracks of an album he wants to listen to.

Edited April 10, 2011 by LadyCrimson

[LadyCrimson]

Bah...why is it as soon as you post something, you find the answer. We've been searching/reading for an hour and....

Finally found a site that mentioned the feature on one of the SanDisk players. Sounds like what he'd want, so, uh, nvm.

[Humanoid]

Late I know but basically there are only two portable music players I'd recommend to anyone which between them cover all the bases. Both are selected with audio quality first and foremost, followed by a wide range of supported formats (I use a mix of FLAC and OGG), expandable memory (extra 32GB microSDHC) and no software tie-in.

 

Sansa Clip+ is the first, and one I think everyone should own. Tiny matchbox-sized player with minimalistic interface, infinitely usable, rugged and cheap as chips - perfect outdoors/gym player.

 

Cowon J3 is the other, and is the complete player and the best sound quality, and indeed video quality in the market bar none. The best of the best.

[Bokishi]

Lol I just use my iPhone for all that

[Humanoid]

Well, down the checklist for Apple's players:

 

Audio quality: middle of the road at best

Supported formats: limited, no FLAC or OGG

expandable memory: nope

software tie-in: haha, itunes

 

 

On a tangent, but I've yet to see any device ship with decent earphones yet so my position is buying third-party ones is a must. I use Koss PortaPros myself.

[LadyCrimson]

software tie-in: haha, itunes

Supported formats: limited, no FLAC or OGG

That's pretty much why I don't like ipods. That and a general dislike of Apple's way of doing things (their GUI/interface/thingies I mean). I doubt I'll ever buy any i-gadget, unless it becomes the only option available.

 

One thing I'm not liking about the playlist concept in the mp3 players is that some of them at least seem dependent on Microsoft's WMP to create them, which I do not use. Hubs doesn't mind but I irrationally hate WMP and refuse to even click on it to start its set up process when I install the OS. But with the card memory I can buy a bunch of the micro cards for cheap online or something and just use them like CD's. Guess that'll work.

[Humanoid]

I don't use playlists personally, I sort by album (relying on the embedded metadata in each track) since I'm an album listener - but playlists are generic formats and pretty much any media software can create them.

 

My desktop music player of choice is the wonderfully customisable Foobar, and it certainly does create and handle playlists.

[LadyCrimson]

Oh I know any media can create playlists...what I mean is that the mp3 player's software/GUI/whatever seems to be set up to only accept/recognize WMP or something.

 

But this is where I get confused when researching because pro reviews and user reviews can make it sound like you have to use WMP (or something else) and only that...and I feel like I can't know until I buy the darn thing and try it myself which often leads to buy-return-buy-return cycles. ;(

[Humanoid]

I think all WMP does in that capacity is write the playlist file (which is a plain old file, .m3u most common I think) to the device. With Apple devices again being an exception, you can view the internal storage of just about any player as it was a regular drive, so it's trivial to select the music files that have already been copied to the player to create a playlist which is then saved manually onto the player (probably in the base music directory).

 

 

Failing all other options, the agricultural one would be to just stick the music files on the player into regular folders and play by folder which most players can do easily enough. This would mean duplicating some tracks if you want them in more than one playlist however so it not a preferred option. I haven't used any of the proprietary software that ships with any player to manage my music so I can't say much about them, bulk copy+paste is all I need.

Edited April 12, 2011 by Humanoid

[Gorgon]

Get something that can play folders, drag and drop, easiest thing in the world. Sorting by metadata is for people suffering from that peculiar Itunes sickness.

 

I recommend the hacha mp4 player. It can handle .flv files (youtube, whatnot), FLAC, the works. It's touchscreen, so it may not be what you are looking for, but it sounds great. If I remember correctly it can make playlists on the go, although the process was somewhat cumbersome.

Edited April 13, 2011 by Gorgon

[Gorgon]

Most importantly to me though is that it has a decent power output, meaning you can plug a real headset into it and not have the volume suffer for it. I can't stand those ear plug thingies, they either start to hurt after a while or fall out.

[Masterfade]

I've been using SanDisk Fuze for over a year now. Couldn't be happier.

[Walsingham]

I've been using SanDisk Fuze for over a year now. Couldn't be happier.

 

How about a sandwich of belly pork and plum sauce? You'd like that? On rye, with a cool beer.