MP3 Players

A great breakdown/review site:

http://reviews.cnet.com/Music/4521-6532_7-5021434-3.html?tag=dir.tp

iPod would be the obvious choice but it's out of your price range. How many songs does she have? Does she download like crazy? How will she use it? Need some more info so I can send you in the right direction..

 

The iPod is definitely the best MP3 player out there. I'm kicking myself for not having spent the extra money and having bought one when I bought my MP3 a year ago

These guys seem to have the lowest price at $180. I've never ordered anything from them but that is what the froogle search found.

 

I'll steer you away from RCA then. Mine is an RCA came with 128 and I put in an additional 256. However now the buttons aren't working that well anymore and the connection between the MP3 and headphones/stero/car stero has always been questionable.

 

IRiver MP3 player with an FM turner & voice/FM recorder. 256mb of space will hold about 4 hours of music. I've had mine for over a year now & I haven't had any issues with it. I think they are selling for well under $150 at Best Buy.

Happy Holidays
http://www.iriveramerica.com

 

Creative makes pretty good players as well. Mine is a few years old, so it only has a 2 hour capacity. It's still fine for me since I only use it for exercising. But for travelling and extensive driving it's nice to have a huge library at your fingertips. You didn't mention your daughter's age, but one of the big advantages of the iPod is its vast array of accessories. Just in case you're not too familiar, the basic translation for the players is 1 minute/megabyte, so a 256mB will hold about 4 hours of music. The iPod in Aureus' link, I'm pretty sure, is a few years old. The new ones are a little thinner and usually come in 20 or 40 gigabyte versions (20,000 and 40,000 minutes respectively). The 20 Gig is usually around $300.

 

Any updates to this thread? I'm looking for a nice MP3 (@ 256MB memory) and your recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks.

Dane

 

After a few years I am considering replacing mine with a much larger one. I use mine a lot when I exercise and even though it has a FM radio I get tired of having to change out my music. The other benefit of the iPod-size players is that you can use them with your home stereos, which means a portable music data base. Let me know if you come across any non-iPod treasure, since I don't want to automatically buy that brand. They obviously dominate the market, but it's worth researching.

FWIW my Creative, now about 6 years old, has held out terrifically through a ton of hard use. So they at least seem to build a solid product.

 

Rio Karma 20 GB....had mine for about 9 months now, not one problem. I find it easier to use than an iPod anyway. Plus I didn't automatically want to buy into iPod either, and after a lot of research, this mp3 player is just as good as the iPod, and cheaper. Not to mention it's smaller and looks cooler with a nice blue backlight as opposed to the boring white backlight.

 

Rio just went under. They were one of the firsts, but they didn't market their product well.

http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/company/press.asp
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/26/2055235&tid=187&tid=141&tid=126

 

Good information in the Rio Q & A portion of the 26 July article. It doesn't look as if this will effect customers. Thanks, Randy, for sharing.

D

 

Just my opinion here......

If your using a windows based computer, stay away from ipod! IMO apple marketed the ipod towards windows computers as a total after thought! Just about everyone I know who has an ipod and a windows platform has issues with thier ipod...including myself. Let me say this though....I still love my ipod! However, I do have issues and have lost lots of music because the ipod just does not function how it should with windows. My next computer will be a mac. That's another story though!
Check out ipod.com and look at the issues that people are posting in the discussion threads. It's fruterating for sure. I think the ipod itself is great.....you just need to know you may have some issues getting the computer to recognize the ipod is hooked up!

Jay

 

www.overstock.com good place to get good stuff for cheap

 

Really? My Ipod Mini works fine with my Windows system, bringing songs that I downloaded illegally to my Itunes is a simple double click, not one problem (yet)

 

I wish I had your ipod.....wanna trade = )

I got mine at X-mas. I haven't used it since May. It came time I needed to update the ipod sotware because itunes automatically updates and the ipod wouldn't link up. well, I went to do the upgrade and windows would not identify my ipod. This is when I went to the support site and ipod.com. I tried EVERYTHING, and in the end I lost all my music and now I need to buy a firewird card to get the ipod to hookup to the computer...which I haven't down yet...which is why I haven't used it since May. What weird is there is no rhyme of reason why one ipod does or doesn't work with a computer. I've tried to update mine on three different computers and it just wont. All computers had 2.0 USB, and should have worked! Similar problems happened to my Mom's, my sisters, and three friends. However...I have a handful of other friends and a bro-in-law who has ipods that work flawlessly! I actually still recommend the ipod. The time I used mine it was great! I really think the problem is the compadibility with windows and not the ipod itself. I do feel apple should work on the issues more though....there are plenty of them. It's been so long...I don;t even remember what firecard that the people on the ipod site recommended. I'll have to check that out again. Any recommendations?

Jay

 

i recommend that you just get her a disc man. they are much easier to use and they are the same purpose. she probably wants an mp3 or ipod because other people have them like most kids.

 

I just got a Sandisk 1 gig player. I run 20 miles a week so I wanted something very compact. Got it for $100. Manufacturing defect so it only has 585megs available for space. Haven't gotten around to sending it back.

 

Cheap, but be careful. A lot of the stuff they sell regarding these electronics is REMANUFACTURED. and you really have to read the fine print, if you want to learn that it was remanufactured BEFORE you buy it. Otherwise you'll be returning it and paying a restocking fee.

 

i guess it could happen. it has never happened to me. but i think of it as i'm taking the same risks as buying it anywhere else online.

 

www.dontbuyjunk.com
All you need is there

 

It happened to me when I bought my Rio Karma. It was retailing for $279 at that time, and being Christmas time, Overstock had it for $220 shipped. SO I bought it, and when it came, the box said REMANUFACTURED all over it. I opened up the box and the screen was scratched a little bit here and there, and there were some scuff marks on the back of it. Lucky for me, it turned out to be defective anyway and would turn on about halfway, make a click and shut off. I returned it for a full $220 refund since it was defective, and was not charged the standard 15% restocking fee. I went and purchased from Circuit City at $279. Good for me, there was a $40 mail in rebate, so I got it for $239 all said and done.

 

iPod is NOT the best player out there, BUT it has all the aftermarket support for periphial devices, especially car stereo integration, so if you get something else you will end up left out in the cold.

 

Thanks for everyone's input! I ended up buying an iRiver 512mb player for $99 from Best Buy. Here's the link:

http://www.iriveramerica.com/prod/ultra/t30/T30-512.aspx

Thus far, it's easy to upload music and talk radio. I clipped one piece off an older headphone set so I can drive and still hear someone honk and give me the finger(!).

The iPods were nice simply because they had so many accessories readily available but iRiver on-line seems to offer the same.

I stood there with the deer in the headlight look when this kid was telling me about the different players and their capabilities. I felt like I was there with my Atari, two paddles and a ball while he's explaining how to conquer the universe with four hundred different weapons while on-line with eight different players from around the world...I felt old.

Dane