Posted: 7/26/2010 4:30:09 AM EDT
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Mine is dying/not supported anymore so I would like your opinions on who makes the best or most reliable MP3 players? Suggestions please, since I'm sure most of you guys and gals have on. It seems as though choices of players are kind of dwindling down... |
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My mom has an iPod Nano that she really likes - my wife and I have iPhones. Apple has dominated the market - all the "best" devices have an "i" in front of them.
If you just want an inexpensive, bare-bones player, I had a Sandisk Sansa for 3 years, and it held up quite well. I'll put my vote in for them as a non-Apple MP3 device. |
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Sony Walkman series - awesome battery life, great sound, nice interface, inexpensive, lots of features, and plays more formats than Ipods with mass-storage-interface (no Itunes or any other bullshit). But, less "Look at me, I've got a $300 MP3 player" smugness, so deduct a point for that. |
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Quoted:
My mom has an iPod Nano that she really likes - my wife and I have iPhones. Apple has dominated the market - all the "best" devices have an "i" in front of them. If you just want an inexpensive, bare-bones player, I had a Sandisk Sansa for 3 years, and it held up quite well. I'll put my vote in for them as a non-Apple MP3 device. i-Whatever for if you want to put up with iTunes bullshit, or having to resort to hacks to get around it. 
Wife and I have Sandisk Sansa units and they are built well. Both of us have used ours for 2 years now 5 days a week. Of course they don't have the "look at me" factor to them. |
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Sony Walkman series - (no Itunes or any other bullshit). I had an old Roxio years ago. I could drag/drop mp3s on to it like a drive when it was pluged into the USB port. Does the Sony software work like that? I hate the iTunes crap, and am contantly trying to figure out WTF is not working with my wifes iPod....what a PIA. 
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Quoted: Quoted: Sony Walkman series - (no Itunes or any other bullshit). I had an old Roxio years ago. I could drag/drop mp3s on to it like a drive when it was pluged into the USB port. Does the Sony software work like that? I hate the iTunes crap, and am contantly trying to figure out WTF is not working with my wifes iPod....what a PIA. Sony (like almost every player on the market right now EXCEPT for Apple's overpriced turds) has USB-mass storage from the get-go. Plug it in, drop your files on, done. No software or drivers needed. |
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iPods, especially the nanos are pretty good durability wise. I've seen plenty of them on military folks on deployment. The thing I hate about them, and every other iPod variant, is how it's tied to iTunes and synced with a specific computer. You can't hook it up to buddy's computer that has an ipod also and share songs. There have been improvements in the software, like to be able to sync it with multiple computers you own like your desktop and your travel laptop. However even that has it's drawbacks, as you'll have a copy of your entire ipod's music library on both computers taking up space. The same problem exists if you use one computer with multiple profiles to sync multiple ipods (you, wife, kid), then you'll inevitably have multiple copies of the same song stored on the computer. For those issues I've always liked simple USB/MTP based players where you can drag and drop the songs you want and not have to sync it to transfer songs. I've used a few iRiver (still have an H340) and Sony Walkmans (still have an A816 and A826) and that's what I've liked about them.
I have an iPhone so I use that, but if I didn't I'd use my Walkman (as I did on my Afghan deployment). Try the anythingbutipod.com website. They do good reviews and have good forum. |
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I have an 8GB iPod Touch, a 60GB Classic, and an 8GB Sansa Fuze, but if I lost every one tomorrow the Touch would be the first one I replace. The Fuze is my "beater" for when I don't want to risk the Touch. iTunes problems are almost always PEBKAC. The user interface of any iPod is worth the extra money.
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I like/use Sandisk. Yep. I have two of them. I have the Fuze and e280. The 2GB Fuze is for traveling; I've already lost one mp3 player by leaving it on a plane so I want something relatively small and cheap for air travel. The e280 (8GB + micro SD card) is for working out at the gym and home use. Edit: I would stay away from Apple. You get fewer features for your money, in typical Apple fashion. microSD expansion slot? Nope. FM radio? Nope. Voice recorder? Nope. Why pay more for less? |
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I can't say anything about lifespan because I've only had it for a few weeks now but I'm really enjoying my Zune HD.
The subscription service is interesting,$15 a month for unlimited downloads that you keep for as long as you have the subscription and you can keep 10 songs a month forever. I haven't decided if I want to use it but if you usually buy an album a month it seems worth it. If you are looking for a million apps it's not the player for you though. |
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Quoted: I have an 8GB iPod Touch, a 60GB Classic, and an 8GB Sansa Fuze, but if I lost every one tomorrow the Touch would be the first one I replace. The Fuze is my "beater" for when I don't want to risk the Touch. iTunes problems are almost always PEBKAC. The user interface of any iPod is worth the extra money. I don't understand people throwing the Touch into a discussion about mp3 players. It's not a fucking mp3 player. A sandisk sansa or ipod shuffle or iriver or creative zen... they're under $100, many under $50, those are mp3 players. The ipod and creative zen vision etc... have screens designed for playing video... these are media players, and have 30gb or more capacity making them bulky and if hd based more fragile. Also more expensive. The Touch isn't even a "media player", it goes beyond that with all sorts of app ability. It's also fucking expensive, anyone who buys a mere 8gb unit will regret that, once they start loading game roms and shit. If you aren't playing videos with it, want small size, long battery life, maximum durability, cost effectiveness, and so on... Then you want .... an mp3 player. It's as if someone came here thinking of a small .380 back up gun and people start recommending ARs, AKs, FALs, and 50BMGs.  |
