MP3 Neophyte needs direction

Rennie Heuer

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I am a TOTAL ignoramus when it comes to new music technology. However, since I'm going to be sequestered to a small corner of a big warehouse purging 40 year old files for the next 4 to 6 weeks, and I don't like the radio station that the group has decided on (mixed rock with the majority of the mix leaning towards AC/DC and the like:eek: - I think I'm getting old), I thought it might be time for me to take the plunge into MP3 Land.

The choices and features are confusing at best. I'm looking at this one only because it is not too expensive (I'm cheap) and it seems to have good reviews. However, I'm probably a poor judge of what constitutes a good review if I can't understand what they're talking about.:rofl:

I know some of you are techno-geniuses, so help me out. I want to move a lot of my CD's over, maybe someday try downloading, and listen to something that will not compromise the quality of the music. I listen to classical (like back, Mozart, Beethoven) and 60's rock, folk rock, etc.

Any suggestions?:dunno:

PS - Oh, and video is not important to me, but it would be nice if it also received radio - FM at least, but AM FM would be better.
 
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I know about as much as you do about the players available, but I think you can get something comparable to the Sony unit you linked to for less money elsewhere. Newegg.com is my go-to place for that type of shopping.
 
Ipods are a pain (Sorry Chuck's girls) but an MP3 player can be had pretty cheap if you don't need to store tons of stuff. To give you an idea, I put about 140 MP3's that I sample at 192k (you'll get used to that lingo as you go) on a 700MB CD to play in the garage. So, a 1GB player will hold a bit more than that, a 2GB player over twice as many songs, etc.).

The prices can go from $35 or so all the way up to $tupid. Don't be confused by two players with the same amount of storage that have a wide price gap. The extra money is for features or to a lesser degree, brand name. All that being said, if a player will play MP3's and do random and repeat functions; I'm sold.
 
Rennie, I have wrestled with this subject for years. I have two sons and we go through mp3 players like disposable paper. I started with the philosphy of cheapest does it. But over time I have come to realise a few things and I am now leaning to Chucks girls side of things. Not for teenagers who loose them and drop them etc but for a guy like a woodworker who knows how to care for things as he would an antique plane etc.

It is not just a matter of size, the issue is when you have x tunes of yours on there and would like to find a particular one the interface is the issue. Some have what I would call touch scroll feature on the dial. This is the technology you want as a feature for the interface, and in this area Apple is king. Then next you want battery power that lasts and IMO a charger that charges it not from the USB port of your computer but from the mains socket. We have been through several itterations of this technology over the last 4 years. These are the features that emerge as neccessary.

Now having seen the latest touch Ipod and then the Iphone, I am leaning towards the next purchase i make in this area of being the Iphone with both the phone and the Ipod element included and then you are done.
No carrying loads of devices. But I have not looked at the storage on an Iphone yet. So thats where I am.
Another thing to think about, spurred on by you and Brent and the magazine scanning, I ripped (converted to mp3 ) my entire cd collection a few weeks back. Then put some of this music on my phone and made up a cable with a couple of dollars worth of connectors from Radio Shack,
to be able to connect the output of the phone to the back of my hi fi and the shop hi fi. The issue to think of here is that its not just for the warehouse job you will be wanting this. And if you are in the area of $100 already think more long term like we do buying tools. Once you have the songs digital and transportable you want to be able to take them with you to all sort of locations and given your age, I presume you like me will not be wanting to have earbuds in your ears all day long. So again back to the Ipod due to its popularity the accessory market for these things is wild and you can get docking stations that become your new Hi Fi base with speakers etc. Then when you go to the shop you pick up the Ipod and plug it into either the ex shop radio or a new docking station.

I have not seen any docking stations for the other makes that are non Ipod.

Next if you would like to carry with you some family photos and perhaps the odd video, storage is going to be the issue so the Ipod guys thought of that when they made the 40gig plus units.

There you have it in my opinion. You can either start out with a "piece of junk" that is likely to frustrate you after a while or get a decent device like the Ipod.

I have to say I never in my life thought I would ever type that I approve of these devices.:rofl: But that is what kids do they keep your pockets empty and alter the mind. I thought they were supposed to keep you young but I keep getting more gray.:D

Best of luck in this choice. Spend more now and buy once or buy now and buy later. I will put money on that one.
 
Rennie,

One man's opinion, as influenced by the inaugural margaritas I had tonight! ;)

Ipods really are a stroke of genius for apple. Take the base technology that everybody has, slap on some marketing to make people think its cool, and you can get twice the price for exactly the same thing!

Well, that's not actually true. Wait till the batteries in the ipods give out. ;)

Anyway, here's something: http://www.google.com/products/cata..._catalog_result&resnum=6&ct=result#ps-sellers

then there's this: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0286256

this one's kinda cool: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0293484

The big thing? They all do the same thing, but the interface can be frustrating. That touch screen number looks easy to navigate!

The other big thing: you will not get good quality sound from the ear buds. If you're listening to brittany spears, they're fine, but for classical music? I use these: http://www.amazon.com/Peltor-90541-WorkTunes-Hearing-Protector/dp/B0013092CS/ref=dp_cp_ob_hi_title_0

Tough, good sound, and hearing protection. What could be better?

Thanks,

Bill
 
This post is going to start looking like one that belongs to Allen except it will be all techie stuff and the $bill pile will be growing. Rennie when you get hooked its going to be all the way and dont say we did not warn you.:rofl:
 
Rennie I haven't owned that Sony, but my last phone (Sony) used the same player. As much as I like my BlackBerry, I miss my sony. The fact that it plays MP3's and WMA (Windows Media Audio?) is a plus. The WMA files are about half the size of MP3s, so will give you more room to load more songs on the device. They also have a good sound, from the device itself.

On the flip side I don't have anything against ipods. I got one for my wife and she can load the thing herself (which says something) and loves it. I just personally don't like the iTunes software, but it works for her.

I recently completed ripping all our cd's to mp3 format and cataloging them on our home pc. Several weeks, hundred CD's, and over 3000 songs later, it makes loading them on our players much easier.

Edit: Have also owned Creative brand mp3 players, both were easy to use and software was easy to use, still use it for ripping my MP3s.
 
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I have a Dell mp3 that has a 20 gig hard drive it holds 5,000 songs I have only 2,500 on it. It did last me almost 4 years before it crapped out, although I did use it at least 9 hours a day 6 days a week.
 
Ipods are a pain (Sorry Chuck's girls)

Yup, I agree.

When my sweetheart wanted an MP3 player a couple of years ago we went to our university student son for advice. He's the technology literate person in our house. She ended up with an Ipod. It works, but it took a long time to learn to use and it uses special "Ipod" software for labeling and organising the files. There was one case where she wanted more than one artists version of a Christmas song on her player and because the titles were the same the Ipod software wouldn't let her load more than one version. On the other hand, my parents have a pair of cheapy units (Sony I think) and they were easy to learn, easy to load, and used AAA batteries so there was no high $$ replacement cost. They were also an eighth of the cost of the Ipod.

That's my experience with MP3 players.

cheers

John
 
Lots of good ideas here Rennie so I won't jump in other than to say it really sounds like it only has to be 'good enough'. You said you wanted something to occupy your time in the warehouse, not something that has to last a lifetime.

MP3 players can be a dime a dozen, almost like a calculator. Some add, subtract, multiply, and divide; some are used to determine the landing requirements to place the Mars Lander.

Make it easy on your self to go from CD to Computer to MP3 player without all the bells and whistles.

A final note: Look around the Web for what are called "Podcasts", maybe of the woodworking type. Perhaps spend the time in the warehouse 'expanding your mind".
 
I started with an iPod shuffle. It was basicially a USB flash drive with play/pause buttons. Apple sells an updated version of this 1GB for about $50. You can load a decent amount of music in, and let it play for hours. The big down side, is that you can't make play lists, or see what is on the player.

I also have an iPod Touch. It is basically the same thing as the popular iPhone, but without the phone. It lets you play videos, music, games, surf the web* & get your email*
*(if you can get to a WiFi hotspot).

It sounds like an iPod Touch would be over kill for what you are looking for. However a Shuffle (1GB for $50) or a Nano (8GB for $150 has a display), might do the trick for you.
 
Having dealt with both the ipod and the creative zen mp3 players in our house (the kids get the cool stuff but I am the one that deals with loading and ripping and burning and blah blah blah) I have to say that I like using the ipod in combination with itunes the best. I will admit however that there is a learning curve, but I think that is the case with most things these days. You can use itunes to buy music and put it on any mp3 player but the problem I was running into a year or two ago was that the files on itunes were newer technology than the mp3 player... the result was having to burn all the songs to cd and then load them back into the computer as mp3 files to put them on the player. I am fairly certain that I recall ditching the Creative software early on in the process of things because it was a pain to deal with and I could do what I wanted to do without it.

As far as number of songs go: one of the girls has 447 songs (1.5 full days worth) on her 16 gig ipod. They (including album artwork) are using just over 3Gigs of space leaving just under 12 free. I'm not sure you really need 16 gigs worth of space for what you want to do..... of course neither do they LOL The 8 gig ipod nano runs in the vacinity of $150.

I agree that having a docking station is a huge plus, but I can also say that I have seen docks that say they will work with any mp3 player. A company called ihome makes the mini one we saw at sears for $20. (the quality of sound from one in that price range may or may not be great.)

Some of the less tech things I like about it are the thin/compactness and the *shell* is metal rather than plastic. You get color options as well which I think are important to more people than would be willing to admit it, and the picture on the screen adjusts to which direction (vertical/horizontal) that you are holding it.

So, yet another opinion to add to the pile. One other thing that I might suggest before you make a choice.... download itunes8 and play arounf with it some to see what you think. If you like the way it works and you can get a decent handle on working with it then it may well be worth it to buy the ipod. If you hate itunes, go with another brand. We have had no actual problems with either of the 1gig Creative Zen mp3 players we have. Actually, since the girls got new ipods, their brother and I have inherited their Zens =)
 
I have an iPOD Nano 3rd gen 8GB. It was used when I received it, but in great condition.

I'm still trying to learn it. Someone loaded some songs on it for me (about 900+ I think) but I don't know how they did it.

I have checked iTUNES and I can't for the life of me figure how I would pay what they want ($.99 ea.) for all those songs. How can you load songs I want without paying for them? I know these kids today don't pay for the songs they listen to.

I'm watching for info.

Aloha, Tony
 
you can use real player, itunes, or several other programs to convert songs from your own cd's to mp3 files that work on your ipod. Basically you put the cd into your computer and the programs *rips* the songs and you save them on your computer, then transfer them. itunes can search your computer for music, add it to your itunes library and from there you can select the ones you want to move to your ipod.
A lot of people do actually pay .99 a song... we do it here. The girls usually get itunes gift cards for Christmas. and honestly I don't mind paying .99 for a song or 2 off an album if I don't care for the rest of it. If I like the majority of the album I will either buy a cd from Walmart or BMG or just pay the 9.99 for the album from itunes.
There are other programs out there, classified as "peer to peer file sharing" that you can use to *trade* music with other people.....doing that though has many risks involved; anything from a simple case of the song isn't what it is supposed to be, to things like viruses attached to the files you trade. There is also the chance that people could get into your computer while you are doing it if you aren't very sure of computers and how to set yourself up safely. You also must consider that when you are getting the music for free you aren't buying the album and you aren't supporting the artist. Everyone has different feeling and opnions on that aspect.
Hope this has helped some.
 
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