What (large capacity) MP3 player do you recommend?

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chinspecial

Gawd
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Sep 25, 2007
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Hey guys, even though this is about mp3 player, I figured this was the right place, if not someone redirect me please?

Well, I currently have a Zen Vision:M (old 30gb fat model) and I really love it, but it's starting to show its age with the smaller screen, bulkiness, and lower end storage capacity. Truth is, I need some more space and I've been itching to upgrade.

What would you guys recommend at this point? I've been eying the Zune 80/120 and the ipod classic 80/160, mostly the 80gb editions though. With the 30% cashback from microsoft, it seems like a sweet time to pick one of these up.

I see the zune has a bigger screen, but same res which sounds weird. The battery life for the ipod is also superior, yet I hear the zune sound quality is better. I also like the ability to use the zune wirelessly to sync up with the computer or however that works.

A couple major things holding me back from either side:

ipod:
I just plain don't like apple or itunes.
Lower sound quality.
Lack of FM radio

Zune:
I read that it has compatibility issues with DRM files?
Lack of compatibility with everything (as opposed to how mainstream ipods have gotten).
Lack of EQ.


Other than that, I'm not too sure. Other good players you have to recommend, I'm willing to listen. :)
 
Sounds like you want a Zune to me (no pun intended). But it also sounds like you need to do a list of what you want and then find something that matches it. That little "pros or cons" list there ain't quite enough, I think.

If you want high capacity, you're stuck between those two, obviously, an iPod or a Zune. Audio quality-wise, the Zune wins from the headphone out as noted by many posts at HeadFi.org, but the iPods have that Line-out from the dock connector that the majority of the "purists" use with small portable (yet very high quality) headphone amps.

Zunes don't have issues with DRM - the only DRM-tagged files it can even play are WMV encrypted files as that's the only format it can handle that can even be encrypted in the first place (obviously it doesn't play iTunes m4p AAC encrypted files).

iPod touch can do wireless anything these days, but of course you're maxed out at 32GB and that's $400 out of pocket; you could buy two decent high capacity Zunes (refurbs) for that much so that's a wash. Would have been nice if Microsoft had found some way to get IE in the damned thing and let people surf the Net or SOMETHING more useful than just doing sync capability and "sharing" files (that shit is useless, it really is). I'd say the Wi-Fi capability in the Zune is pretty much useless overall unless they do something with a future Wi-Fi update.

As far as lack of compatibility with everything, I don't quite get that. If you mean the Zune hasn't been responsible for an entire cottage industry making a few billion a year with accessories upon accessories upon accessories, you'd be correct in that line of thinking. I've never seen the usefulness of all that extra crap personally, almost the same way I feel about EQ: I have no use for it, never have, never will. I listen to music with any EQ or modification as far as I can since I think if the recording engineer and mastering engineer's thought it sounded ok, who am I to argue? :)

It's a toss up, one I've considered many times. My choice?

I bought a Dell Axim X50v off Craig's List, with tons of "accessories" and goodies, extra batteries, and some basic storage with a small capacity CompactFlash card and a 1GB SD card. Of course, that's not much so then I went out and got a 32GB CF card and a 16GB SD card for 48GB of total storage and it's about half full of high quality LAME encoded mp3 files I created myself from FLAC sources and even 18 full length Xvid DVD rips. ;)

Sounds better, gets louder, I can replace the batteries on the go, the screen is bigger (VGA 640x480 resolution), has proper Wi-Fi (Opera Mobile rocks), has tons of actual software that's useful (not slighting the iPod touch, mind you), and... well... I find it far more useful. Spent about $300 total for everything I've got related to the Axim and I've been quite happy with it since day one.

Of course, I still miss my Rio Karma... the best DAP ever made... ;)
 
Thanks a lot, that was a really informative post and helped clear up a few things. Yet I'm still feeling in the fog about what to do. I'm leaning more zune than before now that a couple things have been cleared up.

Oh, by the compatibility thing, I just meant that ipod stuff is everywhere, in car connectors, everyone's got a set of plug-in-your-ipod speakers with that exclusive ipod plug, I could probably get around all that though and still be fine, my zvm has lasted through all this time just fine.

So, I guess all I can ask for now is a first hand testimonial of owning a 2nd gen zune and a classic ipod and seeing which they liked better and why. Anyone?
 
The iPod accessory market is a double edged sword... Yes there's all these docks/speaker systems and car accessories, but at the same time Apple tends to change something every once in a while that completely renders half of those old accessories useless. They did it when they phased out Firewire pin charging (so as to only use USB-type connections), and they did it when they put in a hardware-check on the video out... As for cases, I've seen plenty of Zune, Sansa, and even Sony player cases.

Frankly I've never seen the point of the proprietary connection on half of that stuff, with car systems it's the only place where it's really useful (in order to control the player directly from a head unit on the dash)... Elsewhere you're better off just using the 3.5mm jack or a dock/line-out connection. There's plenty of nice sounding systems you can pair a player with that way (Audioengine A2~). And you can get a car charger for any player I'm sure, it might not double as a fancy dock but there's some pretty nice universal docks out there as well.

Personally I can't speak much for either the iPod or the Zune... Previous to the 16GB iPod touch I have now the only other player I've had was a 5GB Rio Carbon (which put the original mini to shame imo), and some smaller Creative MuVo flash players (which double as thumbdrives, and use AAA batteries, I've never understood why they haven't sold a zillion more of these than the pathetic Apple Shuffle).
 
I vote for iPods because they are easy to use and provide everything that you need in an mp3 player.
I personally really do not like the Zune because it doesn't support languages besides English (kill factor for me).
 
And also realize that every time Microsoft updates the Zune firmware with something new, the older models come along for the ride, basically... whereas Apple says "Hey, fuck you, Average Joes and Jodys (not me, I assure you)" and basically force you into buying an entirely new device to get those new capabilities.

Something to keep under consideration.
 
Sandisk Sansa View looks okay too... A little large but it has SD expansion. And the Cowon players (D2/iAudio7) have absolutely AMAZING battery life (easily double that of any iPod), those are all flash players though (max 32GB, 16GB in many cases), I think the original poster was looking at HD-based players with higher capacities.
 
The zune screen is just sooooo nice. It's durable and the only time I was able to make a 2mm scratch on mine was when I nicked it with my knife on my keychain. The body is just as durable too, although I can't give much input on the newer glossy bodies that they use now.

My gripes with the zune:
- only in car zune integration is on a Ford Sync and maybe 1 or 2 other cars. You can't buy a deck seperately with zune integration.
- there isn't a line-out dock connector like on ipods.
- touch pad is a hit or miss. The recent firmware update helped a little with adding the option to disable horizontal or vertical swipes during playback, I personally got rid of the horizontal because that swipe makes the player either skip to next or previous.
- lack of unicode support. Any foreign characters are just large squares...

Other than those points, I absolutely love my zune. imo, user interface is much better than regular ipods.

btw, Cowon has some really nice offerings too.
 
Can the zune sort by album artist? I have a crap ton of compilations and whatnot, and it would be ridiculous if I could only sort by artist, I'd have like a thousand.

I'm in the exact same situation as the OP, currently have a 30gb zen vision:m and am looking at getting a new higher capacity player, and i too dislike apple. have had my eye on that limited edition gears of war 2 zune, but i need to be able to sort by album artist. the vision:m can't, and it makes navigation a pain
 
I had the Zune 8gb and returned it due to wanting more space, for the Zune 80gb.

I liked it initially, the screen size was excellent and the interface was ok.

That all ended the next day. It's so sluggish, freezes a lot, and some MP3s even skip a few notes (kinda uncommon, but it does happen, very very annoying). I would definitely not recommend.
 
I have definitely looked at Creative's and Cowon's latest offerings. Cowon is really impressing me with some of its hardware, but it can get a bit pricey very quickly. Creative's zen and zen x-fi I thought about getting, but there are some drawbacks that make me just not want them. I don't remember exactly what they were, but I was definitely turned off from them.


So now an answer for cesium666 would be appreciated and also, that sounds pretty serious adreneline. Does this happen often or was your unit perhaps defective?

As for the Cowon players, can anyone recommend one from first hand experience?
 
CNet seemed to be getting horrible battery life out of the Zen X-Fi... I'd shy away from that. I've actually been looking for a new 16GB (maybe 32GB) flash player for my sister as a christmas gift, she's not partial to iPods and would probably avoid 'em given the option... But the iPod nano's not looking too bad right now, I'm leaning towards one of the Cowon players, but they're not common on retail so I won't be able to take her to a Best Buy/CC and see what she thinks of them, hrm. They're chunkier than a nano, that's for sure.

The Sansa View seems to have some quality issues, and the propietary cable is a turn-off... I'm sure my sister would lose that in a hurry, or she'd leave it in her apartment when coming home (about 2 hours away, weekend trips) and wouldn't be able to charge her player. The older Zen (non X-Fi) had some quirks as well, the SD card lives in it's own little world for instance and the files aren't integrated with the players within the player interface.

So yeah, I'm right there with ya, wish I could find several of the Cowon players somewhere to get a better feel for 'em beyond what the reviews say about 'em (which from what I've seen is pretty favorable).
 
What about iRiver players? I had the 320s and that was a sturdy and capable player with large hard drive. I am sure there are some good players from iRiver. Zune and iPoo are pure advertizing hype, not worth money IMO. iRiver, Cowon, Zen, Sansa are better value, better audio quality and have more features in general.
 
I don't see how any of those players are a better value, nearly all the new products are flash-based, and thus there exists no high-capacity variant


iriver for example, i friggin love their designs. but every single new player is flash-based, and their old hard drive ones are 1) old and 2) 30gb or so max

of all the ones you listed, cowon is the only company that has some sort of competitive offering. but, their issue is that their only high-capacity players are PMPs with 4+ inch screens, something thats not exactly pocket-friendly :p plus theyre friggin expensive
 
I dunno about better quality, more features yeah, but that isn't very hard (considering how little Apple has really added to the nanon/classic since their inception); and better value isn't much of a coup either since most of 'em sell for $50-60 less than the same size iPod equivalent, always have. Sandisk seemed to be having QC issues with the newer Sansa from what I'd been reading, and if there's one thing Apple knows it's how to put together something that really feels solid. /shrug Guess it depends how you define quality.

They're definitely worth a look, though the product line of some of those other companies, even Creative, seems to shrink more with every year. Sandisk and Creative are both down to two medium-sized players each, and for some god-forsaken reason they've stopped making some of the highly-useful usb thumbdrive / players they used to and started aping the shuffle with no-screen players devoid of any features, beyond dumb. They've all stopped making HD based players too.

Frankly Cowon/Archos are the only ones consistently putting out something different in at 'least one significant way. At some point flash might just completely supplant HD-based players either way, 16GB's pretty common now and 32GB models outside of Apple's are starting to show up more... Who's gonna pick an 80GB HD player in a year when there's 64GB flash players? Did IBM/Hitachi or whomever stop developing the micro-drives that go into the HD based players or something? Where's the 250GBs? :rolleyes:

What has iRiver put out lately? I almost figured they'd gone under, I searched for reviews and the only thing I found were early '07 reviews of the 2nd gen Clix which topped out at 4GB. Searched Amazon/Newegg and I didn't see much else. The website has some slick looking stuff but it's hard to tell if half of it is even out... :eek: Almost wish Rio hadn't gone kaput, the Carbon was pretty sweet looking at the time... And this whole market might've gone nowhere if it were not for Diamond's early court battles! Their CD-based MP3 players were an awesome alternative to the early pricey flash players they and everyone else were putting out at first too.
 
iriver has this sweet spinn thing, it looks fricking sweet. but its flash based :(

as for your statement on better value, i dont see a a 120gb player anywhere selling for 200 buck, let alone a 120gb player (not a huge friggin pmp)
 
I love the Zune 30GB (1st Gen) I have. Still going strong & rarely fails me. When it does freeze up (due to firmware v3), I just restart it. Overall, my experience for a year & a half has been really good. My next player will probably be the Zune 120GB (3rd Gen) or a full featured video/music player with a bigger screen.
 
Yes, I have definitely seen the market go downhill with mostly flash based players. The iRiver offerings are much less than what they used to be (used to have an H320 and loved it). The spinn looks nice, but is indeed very expensive.

I agree that Cowon and Archos have been the only really somewhat competitive brands for high capacity products, but like it's been stated, archos has been lacking and Cowon are just big and expensive.

So basically, I think it yearns back to the ipod/zune? Adreneline's problem with his zune is still a bit troubling. Anyone experience this sort of thing?
 
I was an all ipod man for 5 years. Switched to Zune 80 about 4 months ago, and I love it more than I have loved any ipod.
 
Can any of you with the zune weigh in on my question? can you sort by album artist or something similar?
 
damnit :(

hmmm on gizmodo it says:
Q: Second, I am curious how the Zune handles albums that have an album artist that is different from the track artist. For example, on a DJ mix album, the DJ would be the album artist and the track producer would be the track artist.

A: Yes, there's a concept of "Album artist" and "artist" on there. So if you label it correctly, you can search/sort by either album artist or just artist. So to answer your question, yeah, it would work.
Click to expand...

could you weigh in on that maybe? just curious
 
hmm, now that I went into the settings and stuff, you can sort by either album artist or track artist. You have to pick one or the other though.

So in your case, you can have your entire collection sorted by only the name on the album or you can set it to sort the artists by the individual tracks. Hope this was what you were looking for.

edit: oops, you can have it set to only album artist or album and track artist.
 
I've got a Zune 80GB.
If I could do it again, I'd go with an ipod.

Then again, I do have a freezing & random reboot problem, so that would sway my opinion on this product.
 
Calpis said:
hmm, now that I went into the settings and stuff, you can sort by either album artist or track artist. You have to pick one or the other though.

So in your case, you can have your entire collection sorted by only the name on the album or you can set it to sort the artists by the individual tracks. Hope this was what you were looking for.

edit: oops, you can have it set to only album artist or album and track artist.
Click to expand...

Sweet, that is EXACTLY what i was looking for :D:D:D now im worried by all these reports about freezing and stuff damn lol :p
 
Something you can put Rockbox on. :)

I currently have a Zune 8 and a iRiver H340 with a 60GB HDD and Rockbox. I've had a Zune 80, a Zune 4, and a iPod nano (the only reason I got a nano was I needed something to put Audible.com audiobooks on and I needed it NOW, but when Zune v3 finally came out I gave it to my sister). I have the Zune 8 for my podcasts and the iRiver for all my music.

I don't mind the Zune software or hardware. The only thing that has really kept me from ditching my H340 for day-to-day music listening is how controllable Rockbox is... two things:

1) Playlists. My music-listening mood is very variable. I realize I could create playlists ahead of time on the software and just load them onto the Zune (which is what I did while I had my 80GB Zune), but that's just not me. I prefer to go through my music and load up what sounds good at the moment. Which brings me to my other issue:

2) File view. My music isn't saved by Genre>Artist>Album, I have a folder for my country music artists>albums, a folder for my game music artists>albums... but I have a one shot CD, that's in the root folder. Or I have a ton of one-off MP3s I've gotten from Amazon. If I look at my music in genre or album or artist view, it's going to be pretty slow and clunky compared to a file tree view. At least for me. :)

All of that said, I do like my Zune, if I had to get a DAP for music playing it would be either one of the high capacity Zens or a Zune.
 
General Crespin said:
Something you can put Rockbox on. :)

I currently have a Zune 8 and a iRiver H340 with a 60GB HDD and Rockbox. I've had a Zune 80, a Zune 4, and a iPod nano (the only reason I got a nano was I needed something to put Audible.com audiobooks on and I needed it NOW, but when Zune v3 finally came out I gave it to my sister). I have the Zune 8 for my podcasts and the iRiver for all my music.

I don't mind the Zune software or hardware. The only thing that has really kept me from ditching my H340 for day-to-day music listening is how controllable Rockbox is... two things:

1) Playlists. My music-listening mood is very variable. I realize I could create playlists ahead of time on the software and just load them onto the Zune (which is what I did while I had my 80GB Zune), but that's just not me. I prefer to go through my music and load up what sounds good at the moment. Which brings me to my other issue:

2) File view. My music isn't saved by Genre>Artist>Album, I have a folder for my country music artists>albums, a folder for my game music artists>albums... but I have a one shot CD, that's in the root folder. Or I have a ton of one-off MP3s I've gotten from Amazon. If I look at my music in genre or album or artist view, it's going to be pretty slow and clunky compared to a file tree view. At least for me. :)

All of that said, I do like my Zune, if I had to get a DAP for music playing it would be either one of the high capacity Zens or a Zune.
Click to expand...

Ah.. This is a pretty reassuring post and does a lot for me. I wish they would have gotten Rockbox on the ZVM, looks like it will be taking a while as it hasn't been updated on status in quite sometime. I need some more space anyway, looks like I'm leaning more zune than before and might just pull the trigger soon, before that microsoft live cashback drops even more!
 
Being a Zune user for a year now and I love it. Sound quality is excellent and the whole experience has been a pleasure.

The accessories come direct from MS and are all of good quality, so you dont have to worry about nasty $5 iPod type docks etc. Yuk.

So far I have the Zune Dock/remote, Zune2 radio kit and power charger.

The firmware updates just make it better and better so its like having a new player every few months. Also the build quality is very very good. It doesnt scratch on thin air like the iPod.

Never had one lock up or slowdown as yet. Dunno what some folks are doing with theirs??

I'd buy another. Cant say fairer that that really.

Think different - Get a Zune!
 
Well, I pulled the trigger on a zune 80. Haven't gotten to it yet, so I can't say any hands on. With MS cashback I got 30% back making it around 150. After hopefully selling my ZVM I should get a new zune 80 for around $50. :D


Anyone with a zune got any good case recommendations? all the ones I've come across seem to have some serious drawbacks (or at least big enough to not make me want one). BTW, I don't much care for silicone skins at all.
 
I got the full body Zagg Invisible Shield for $15 off the egg. Adds no bulk, and where it covers gives some nice protection. Keywords here being where it covers. Unfortunately the corners as well as a sliver on the upper area of the sides are a bit exposed. I can post pics if you want. Also takes few tries to get it applied straight. Overall I like it though.
 
Ah yes! I was just looking at that and was thinking seriously about buying it. I bought something similar for my zen when I got it. Pics would be much appreciated, posted or PM. Thanks a lot!
 
This is a very late response, but in case you are still looking, I like the Creative Zen, and would recommend switching out mem cards to rival an iPod's stoarge.
 
Stanley Pain said:
Another vote for the Zune, got the 120GB version a few weeks back and love it.
Click to expand...

Ditto for me. With a decent set of $60 Sennheiser earbuds and lossless encoding this players sounds incredible. I converted over 30 of my CD's, three videos and a ton of pictures the first week and barely put a dent in the capacity. I've already dropped it onto a concrete floor from about 4.5' up while jumping over a barrier and it didn't phase it a bit. One corner has a mild dent, but that is all. I ordered the clear film protector for the front so despite my abuse this thing has that one and only dent to show for daily wear. I highly recommend it.
 
chinspecial said:
Ah yes! I was just looking at that and was thinking seriously about buying it. I bought something similar for my zen when I got it. Pics would be much appreciated, posted or PM. Thanks a lot!
Click to expand...
Here, sorry, had other things on my mind:
pc099762.jpg


pc099763.jpg


pc089759.jpg
 
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