So I'm thinking about getting an mp3 player what should I get?

I want lots of memory.

Do not get a Rio Karma. Piece of shit. Nice concept, but mine's pretty well toast about 8 months in. I can't even go through a whole album now without at least one skipped song.

I'm looking at either a Creative Zen Touch 20 GB or the 20 GB iRiver.
Zen Touch boasts 24 hours of battery time, and it's more competitively priced, ~$250.

If you are going for sheer size, I think Creative makes some 40 and 60 GB models, I think.

my only experience is with the ipod. it's been good to me. elegant interface and 30gb of room.

c.

I bought the iRiver iHp120 about a week ago. So far, so good. It plays mp3, ogg, and wma files. Has an FM tuner and a voice recorder. Does not require any software (unlike the iPod, which requires iTunes). You can also use it as a portable hard drive if you ever need to carry around large files.

The cons would be no gapless playback and irregualr firmware updates. The new version lacks a remote, which I think sucks, but you might not care about.

I'll second the iPod recommendation. I've got the 40GB model currently, and couldn't be happier with it. There's now a 60GB model available. They've definitely solved the battery life problem with this new generation, too. Like neuroboy noted, the interface is second to none. Yeah, it's more expensive, but I think it's worth every penny.

There is a new sub-issue of Wired magazine out that rates the players. I know that just about every PC/music mag out there has rated them, but this one was decent. They chose the ipod as the best, followed by the new Arcos player, followed by the new Zen Touch.

iRiver doesn't have Random play either, is that correct?

There's a shuffle mode, but it repeats the songs in the same order every time. You can get around this by adding or removing songs to make it shuffle in a different order. With over 7,000 songs on my player I don't see it as a big deal.



They just announced the remote for the new players today. There are pictures at MisticRiver.

That's a nice looking remote. However, the new iRiver doesn't come included with it, as the previous version did. Or do they plan to eventually bundle them up?

I hadn't realized iRiver's shuffle mode was so lame. Even more reason to hope that the Rockbox project makes a port for iRiver. This will probably be the only way iRiver will ever get it's kinks worked out of it.

I can't believe the iRiver developers haven't fixed that with a firmware upgrade.

I got an iPod, but I probably would have bought a Zen if I didn't get the exceptional deal I did on the iPod. One of the electronics chains (Best Buy or Circuit City) is selling the 30gb Zen for $199 this week.

It's time to come clean. I know I'm was always going on about how I hated mp3 players, but that was just because I couldn't afford one.

With my first wage I bought a Creative Zen 20GB. It's a nice design, pretty light weight and comes with a sturdy carry case (this in my experience is one of the important factors).

The finger pad for scrolling through the menu's is really good and it's pretty easy to navigate through the various screens. I've heard people complain about the backlight being to dull but mine is absolutely fine. The sound quality is decent for music on the move and it's goes loud. And I like my music loud.

The only downsides would be the download software is abit of a pain and I'm not sure where they got the 24 hours of battery life claim from but overall I'd recommend it.

At least this side of the Atlantic they are cheaper than I-Pods with the same amount of memory. Another plus.

I, like Aaron, probably would've went with the creative zen had it not been for an exceptional deal on the ipod. I love it.

ipod is the only harddrive player i've used and i love it. the only thing is you really need a case for it. the first week i just threw it in my bag and it got scratched pretty easily. i eventually bought an iskin, which definitely keeps it protected but adds bulk.

i also had a cd/mp3 player from iriver before that and i think their products stand up pretty well.

You can get polish for the acrylic and chrome that removes scratches almost entirely.

to tell you the truth mine ipod is scratched to hell and, well, i could care less. maybe i should start decorating it garishly. anyone have batz maru stickers?

c.

my rio karma's been good 8 months in myself. had problems 4 times so far trying to turn it off, but a paper clip has solved that via the reset button hole.

iriver's on sale this week at best buy, i believe. that was my second choice earlier this year.

I've done well with my iPod for over a year and a half now. Love it, and use it excessively.

I've got a Rio Karma (20GB) and a Rio Carbon (5GB). I got the Karma first and used it for several hours a day. Never had any hardwarde type issues with it, but I don't think the firmware is as stable as it could be. Since I got the Carbon I haven't even turned the Karma back on. I definitely have found myself sacrificing the space for the size. The Carbon (I'm sure much like the Mini Ipod) fits in my front pant pocket and is super light weight. I really don't mind having to change out songs at a higher frequency than when I was using the Karma. I guess what I am getting at here is that after using a bulkier device that holds more music, I now find that I am a bigger fan of the sleek lightweight devices.

as far as the ipod scratches, haq's solution sounds pretty good. i don't mind the body scratches so much as when it happens to the screen. there's also ipod "skinz" that are vinyl stickers that wrap around it. kinda neat lookin.

give me your opinions please on this

From the ad: '2.5" 80GB Hard Drive '

So which is it? Either way it's big, but I've never heard of it, and it looks kinda cheap.

i've found that the best site for relatively obscure gadgets like this is gizmodo.com. they reviewed that player here.

my guess is that it comes with an 80GB Hard Drive installed but that it can handle a 100 GB hard drive. If so, its kind of lame that they stress the 100GB so much in the description and then bury the 80GB in the specs with little info but like you said it's at least relatively speaking big either way.

Here's a pretty thorough review I just found if anyone is interested. I haven't read it in detail so any thoughts anyone has are welcomed.

I go back and forth on whether I even want an mp3 player. I've always just used a cd walkmen but I've smashed the remote for the 2nd time in 2 years (had to buy a new one the last time) and figure if I'm going to buy something new (which I think I'm going to have to very soon) I probably ought to get an mp3 player rather than a new walkmen.

My music collection is somewhere around 3500'ish though and while I don't need to load everything I want a lot of capacity if I'm going to get one. I don't think I need a lot of frills. I'd probably prefer no remote and I don't even give a shit whether it has random or not. I just want it to have decent sound quality, lots of storage, ok battery life and not be a piece of shit thats going to need replacing within a year.

Any other thoughts on this one or recs in general?

Dimension : 5" x 3.2" x 0.8"
Weight : 9 oz

Good god, man.

Ha Ha...when I was your age, son, you'd probably have needed a mainframe the size of my apartment to store that much music...doesn't seem THAT huge to me.

I wish I could live with my walkmen for another year and get a smaller unit with larger capacity in a years time but I don't think my walkmen will last another couple of months even...there are wires hanging out of it.

I'm just wondering if its even worth having an mp3 player if you can't load a huge portion of your collection on it. Otherwise, if you are going to be constantly adding/removing why not just use a walkmen and a case