What portable music player do you own?

[Andy A.]

Personally, I love my Creative Zen.

I got a deal on the 40gig model at best buy because it was an opened package. Turns out the firmware was corrupted, and best buy never bothered to check it. I popped online, updated the firmware and was good to go. Yeah for opened packages and big discounts.

It's slightly larger then an ipod, has a large blue backlit screen and, in my view, looks great. I like the jog lever interface, although some friends who own ipods detest it. I guess it depends on which you use first. Button placement feels natural and easy for me. Battery life weighs in at around 9 hours, depending on which effects I have turned on. After a year of daily use, the battery is still going strong, although it is easy to replace if I need to. Sound quality absolutely blows ipods away, even ipod owners have admitted it. Personally, I can't tell the difference between the two most of the time, but it's nice to know it is there. It will also play various formats, like ogg vorbis, if your into that kind of thing. Playlist creation on the fly is a snap compared to ipods, and the music library feature is well organized and sortable.

My one gripe is with the software it ships with. It's pretty clunky. I've considered buying a 3rd party version that is supposedly 10 times better, but I haven't gotten around to it. Considering how I think they got the player spot on, I can forgive the clunky PC interface.

Expect to pay around $250 for a 40 gig model.

-Andy A.

[Ben Lauer]

Originally Posted by Bacchus

Thanks for the input. Does anyone actually own an iRiver? I've heard the interface is pretty clunky. But I think I'm leaning toward getting one of those...

Yes, i own one.
As long as your music is organized in folders well, and you have most things correctly tagged, the interface is perfect. You sort by Artist, Song title, Album, and genre, as well has going through your file tree to find music you want to play. You can cue up one song at a time, so when a song is playing, you can sort though and find the next song for it to play, and it will automatically sort to it. The battery life on my 40gb iRiver iHP-140 has be consistently between 14 and 16 hours, and i have had it for almost a year.

It is treated like an external hard drive, and has plug and play with windows 2000 and xp, and has drivers for 98. (i hope you don't have 98, if you do, you need to change that ;-). I have only one complaint. When you turn it off, it goes off, and when you turn in back on, it takes about 30 seconds to resume playing.

I love it, i take it everywhere, and it is only slightly bigger than an iPod. I don't remember what the price was, but you should watch for a good deal on amazon, they have specials were something will be on sale for only one day, and it will have a really discounted price.

If you want to know more, let me know, I'll fill you in.

Oh yeah, if you want software that will tag your mp3's for you, Check out
MusicBrainz for free software that will compare your songs to a database, and will update tags with out all the hassle it takes to do it on winamp or other multimedia applications.

****NOTE**** - I have a 20gb iRiver, unopened, that i would be willing to part with, but i would have to figure out how much it would cost the buyer. I'll investigate that evenually, and if you are interested, contact me.

[Wetzel]

The Toshiba Gigabeat F is awesome. 2.2" QVGA polysilicon TFT, 2.48in x 4.17in x .62in, .35 lbs and 60gb drive. Of course it works as a USB harddrive.

I hate Japan. They tease me with so many awesome gadgets, then never sell them over here, or if they do it is to sell off things that have become obsolete there. So I'm stuck with an iPod. Stupid corporations wanting to know the market for a device before they release cool stuff. Then Apple comes along and says, we'll take that risk, and look where the iPod is now!
{/bitterness}

I wish that consumers drove technology, not business.


Wetzel

[greencactus3]

Originally Posted by Wetzel

I hate Japan. They tease me with so many awesome gadgets, then never sell them over here, or if they do it is to sell off things that have become obsolete there. So I'm stuck with an iPod. Stupid corporations wanting to know the market for a device before they release cool stuff. Then Apple comes along and says, we'll take that risk, and look where the iPod is now!
{/bitterness}
Wetzel

dont hate japan! hate whoever imports these or w/e lol

[Wetzel]

Originally Posted by greencactus3

dont hate japan! hate whoever imports these or w/e lol

The problem is they DON'T import them. They've put the emphasis on tech, and tech infrastructure for a long time now. You can do real videoconfrenceing from your cell phone with FOMA there. Here? We barly have megapixal cameras in cell phones, while over there they consumer digital cameras are averaging 1 gigapixel with 5+ megapixel cameras in cellphones.

Makes me want to move to Japan.

Wetzel

[Wetzel]

I am now the happy owner of a 4th Gen 20gb iPod. Only problem is figuring out what to put on it as i have ~55gb of mp3s. :-/
Maybe I should get one of the iPod photos, but I have a feeling I'll pass 60gb before too much longer.

I am, however, looking at getting an iRiver PMP-120 or an Archos AV420. Any thoughts?


Wetzel

[Cory]

Ok, I lied, my Archos battery wasn't dead afterall.

I ordered the $30 replacement battery that also supposedly gives up to 40% more life for my model, and figured out how to get at the battery so when it came I'd know what to do.

Turns out that after all that, the battery just needed to be pushed down a little more so that it made better contact...

[Brandon Martus]

I have a 40GB 3rd Generation iPod (the one beforethe click-wheel). I love it .. although its too small for my music collection.