Want a new mp3 player

[DavidW]

I currently have an 8 gig 2G ipod touch, which has served my purposes nicely.  But now I've finished ripping my cd collection (but I'm still retagging) and my core collection, my absolute favorites are 20 gigs.  And I want room for expansion.  Now I can also listen to everything on my laptop, but an mp3 player is more portable.  I can just keep what I have and keep swapping music, but there is a certain cool factor of having all of the music I like on one player that I carry around everywhere.

But I would need a high capacity player to fill those needs. What should I get?  Or should I simply be happy with what I have?  What do you think?

[karlhenning]

Much though I do like my Sansa Fuze, I need more capacity, too.  At some point I'll probably go for the iPod classic.  Since that is speculative, I am recusing myself from the vote : )

[DavidW]

Karl, I think that your player has a microsd card slot, and I think 8 gig card is $10, 16 gig is < $30.  If you're happy with the ui, features and battery life that is.

[karlhenning]

You're right, I might opt for the bigger card.  And perhaps if I [re-]rip more intelligently, I may well be able to fit all that I wish onto [8 + 16] gig.  And yes, I am perfectly happy with performance and logistics of the Fuze.

[Gurn Blanston]

If my Sansa e280 8 gig were to die today, I would replace it with this:



the 16 gig Fuze+.

The e280 has served me very well indeed, and the Fuze does all that and more, including support for FLAC now, so I won't have to convert my archives to MP3 to play them. And the micro-card support (which I also have on the e280) is very handy for either extended travel or for having a library of pictures, for example. The 2 gig micro SD from my Olympus camera pops right into the e280 and allows easier viewing compared to looking at the back of the camera!  No doubt, that would be the one for me!

[Opus106]

I can just keep what I have and keep swapping music, but there is a certain cool factor of having all of the music I like on one player that I carry around everywhere.

But I would need a high capacity player to fill those needs. What should I get?  Or should I simply be happy with what I have?  What do you think?

Beethoven's symphonies, piano sonatas, and string quartets. Mozart's complete cycle of symphonies and the Haydn quartets. WTC, GV, B minor mass and SMP. All ripped to ALAC. Virtually everything of importance written by Mahler @ 320 kbps, with some duplication in lossless. And a whole truck load of other music, much of it lossless. And I still have 73 GB left in my 120 GB iPod Classic. Now you decide. 0:)

[karlhenning]

If my Sansa e280 8 gig were to die today, I would replace it with this:



the 16 gig Fuze+.

The e280 has served me very well indeed, and the Fuze does all that and more, including support for FLAC now, so I won't have to convert my archives to MP3 to play them. And the micro-card support (which I also have on the e280) is very handy for either extended travel or for having a library of pictures, for example. The 2 gig micro SD from my Olympus camera pops right into the e280 and allows easier viewing compared to looking at the back of the camera!  No doubt, that would be the one for me!

Aye, this plus a 16-gig card is apt to suit me just fine.

[SonicMan46]

Well, I've been living w/ an iPod Touch (2nd G - 32 GB) for about 6 months; although I've put 40+ albums on the device (classical & non-classical - have to please Harpo on the road!), there is still 24 GB left!  This was given to me by my son (his work place gave him a new phone), so can't complain about the price! 

Love the Wi-Fi to sync some of the apps I added w/ my laptop (bought some desktop programs for that purpose - just much easier to enter data from a keyboard) - this replaced an old Palm device, so was a big step up for me - thus, likely will not upgrade for a while - 

[Gurn Blanston]

Beethoven's symphonies, piano sonatas, and string quartets. Mozart's complete cycle of symphonies and the Haydn quartets. WTC, GV, B minor mass and SMP. All ripped to ALAC. Virtually everything of importance written by Mahler @ 320 kbps, with some duplication in lossless. And a whole truck load of other music, much of it lossless. And I still have 73 GB left in my 120 GB iPod Classic. Now you decide. 0:)

Easy decision, I'm afraid, Navneeth. Despite the positives you cite, the bottom line is that it's an Apple. The first thing I tick off on my selection list is; Is it proprietary?. If the answer is Yes, then it goes in the rubbish bin. Thus all the Apples and the MS Zune are out of the running right at the gate. It isn't the product, it's the company behind it.

[mc ukrneal]

Easy decision, I'm afraid, Navneeth. Despite the positives you cite, the bottom line is that it's an Apple. The first thing I tick off on my selection list is; Is it proprietary?. If the answer is Yes, then it goes in the rubbish bin. Thus all the Apples and the MS Zune are out of the running right at the gate. It isn't the product, it's the company behind it.

I didn;t vote for this reason. That is the first thing I check too.

[Opus106]

Easy decision, I'm afraid, Navneeth. Despite the positives you cite, the bottom line is that it's an Apple. The first thing I tick off on my selection list is; Is it proprietary?. If the answer is Yes, then it goes in the rubbish bin. Thus all the Apples and the MS Zune are out of the running right at the gate. It isn't the product, it's the company behind it.

Well, two members of the Apple party are certainly in the running. It may not be an issue as far as David is concerned, because I think he uses Linux (in a dual-boot or virtual environment) and there are plenty of media players (including the ones that are shipped along with the distro -- so no need to go in search of a buggy app that only five people use) which let you load and manage portable media players, even if it's from Apple.

[drogulus]

     
     gaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgapless
     gaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgapless
     gaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgapless
     gaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgapless
     gaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgapless
     gaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgaplessgapless

     Other than that, the only thing I can think of is gapless.

     

I currently have an 8 gig 2G ipod touch, which has served my purposes nicely.  But now I've finished ripping my cd collection (but I'm still retagging) and my core collection, my absolute favorites are 20 gigs.  And I want room for expansion.  Now I can also listen to everything on my laptop, but an mp3 player is more portable.  I can just keep what I have and keep swapping music, but there is a certain cool factor of having all of the music I like on one player that I carry around everywhere.

But I would need a high capacity player to fill those needs. What should I get?  Or should I simply be happy with what I have?  What do you think?

     Get a bigger Touch, the biggest one you can afford. I might go that route instead of a new Nano.

     Gapless solutions (from Wikipedia, updated frequently):

    Rockbox for various digital audio players.
    Cowon S9 supports gapless playback without software dependency since 2.31b firmware
    Microsoft Zune supports gapless playback with Zune 2.5 or later firmware, though some bugs remain and occasionally small pops or skips can be heard.[4]
    Rio Karma and TrekStor Vibez: Gapless hardware players with no software dependency
    Apple iPod classic supports gapless playback of MP3s and AACs from the fifth generation onward[5]
    Apple iPod nano second generation and later[5]
    Apple iPod Touch[5]
    Apple iPhone[5]
    Apple iTunes 7.0 and later versions support as default gapless playback on Macintosh and Windows without having to combine tracks during encoding (a limitation of previous releases). Some users in unusual situations have complained that the one-time analysis is a system-intensive process that can stall or crash computers.
    Windows Media Player: Has supported gapless ripping and playback of WMA since Windows Media 9. Available on all current Windows machines.
    OtsAV software supports gapless playback, including intelligent fade-mixing and beat-mixing. It is designed for DJs, radio and TV stations, and AV enthusiasts.
    Winamp supports gapless playback for MP3 and AAC files (since version 5.3).
    XmPlay supports gapless playback for all format files
    foobar2000
    Media Center
    Aqualung
    MiniDisc
    ATRAC3 NW Series Sony Walkmans
    Music Player Daemon for Linux and other platforms.
    Music On Console
    Olive Media Products Opus and Melody players
    Archos Gmini XS202S
    Sony PlayStation Portable Support Gapless with MP3 and ATRAC file formats (Tested on 5.00 M33-3 firmware)
    Rhythmbox
    Banshee
    Raumfeld multi-room audio system supports gapless playback since firmware version 1.2
    All players in the Logitech/Slim Devices Squeezebox range support gapless playback for all gapless formats (lame MP3, FLAC, Vorbis, etc). Crossfading is also optionally available.
    DeadBeef

[Gurn Blanston]

I didn;t vote for this reason. That is the first thing I check too.

Sandisk doesn't have any proprietary features, works very well, and doesn't cost an arm and/or a leg. That one I pictured above is only $110 USD. My e280 from 2-3 years ago was $150, and it had about half of the features and capacity of this one.

[Gurn Blanston]

Gapless is a total non-issue for me, Ernie. I don't even know (or care) whether my player supports it.

[drogulus]

Sandisk doesn't have any proprietary features, works very well, and doesn't cost an arm and/or a leg. That one I pictured above is only $110 USD. My e280 from 2-3 years ago was $150, and it had about half of the features and capacity of this one.

     What proprietary feature do you find objectionable? Is it ALAC?

Gapless is a total non-issue for me, Ernie. I don't even know (or care) whether my player supports it.

     You have a gapless player. Lossless files (and properly made mp3s) will be gapless.

[Opus106]

Gapless is a total non-issue for me, Ernie. I don't even know (or care) whether my player supports it.

But...but, what if the last movement of Op. 125 -- the Op. 125 -- is split into two tracks?

[Gurn Blanston]

But...but, what if the last movement of Op. 125 -- the Op. 125 -- is split into two tracks?

When I rip (using dBpoweramp), I always rip it as 1 track. Also do that with 3rd-4th movement of the 5th. But even stuff ripped by others plays back without a discernible gap on my Sandisk. I guess it just doesn't bother me...

[Opus106]

     What proprietary feature do you find objectionable? Is it ALAC?

Up till gen. 5.5, Rockbox can load FLAC on the iPod. Of course, it is a do-it-at-your-own-risk hackware.

[Opus106]

When I rip (using dBpoweramp), I always rip it as 1 track.

I didn't know it could do that!

[Gurn Blanston]

I didn't know it could do that!

Yes, you can rip a whole disk or any selections from it. Look at the top icon toolbar and there is one that is a big numeral 1 and means "Rip as 1". Click it and it shows the entire disk, you just select what you want and say OK.