Let's talk about MP3 players...

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

On a related note, I find it pretty ridiculous that Apple charges $50 if you want to order their crappy headphones. I mean, I wouldn't even pay $10 for those cheap things.

Apples website says they are $35. Still overpriced though.

[HotHotHeat]

Originally Posted by blankall

Ipods have awful durability.

They are much more expensive than other brands.

They have poor battery life.

Not everyone likes have to use ITunes. I much prefer drag and drop.

The sound quality is very mediocre. The headphones they come with are awful and uncomfortable and break easily.

I buy Sansa clips. I've had to replace mine once in the last two years. However, they only cost $40 and have much much better sound quality than IPods, so I am well ahead.

I honestly don't think you've put one second of research into any of the statements you make in this post.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

I honestly don't think you've put one second of research into any of the statements you make in this post.

Drag and drop is cool, though. I'd way rather have that.

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by Burninator

Apples website says they are $35. Still overpriced though.

It must have gone down a bit then. The last time I checked was 2 or 3 years ago.

I still rock the 80 gig Ipod video. I like it because it basically holds my whole music library. It's a little bulky, but it still does the job. I think eventually when the battery finally goes, I'll probably just permanently dock it to my alarm clock.

[Rathji]

I love my iPod, but the iPhones of recent models have sucked, especially for the price. I would much rather cough up $20 for some Skull Candy headphones.

[GreenTeaFrapp]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

So the thing connected as mass storage or as a PMP device? Or something proprietary like Ipod? Media Monkey and a few other players can sync to PMP.

It was proprietary like an iPod except iTunes was a lot better than the Zune software. And I don't like iTunes.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

I honestly don't think you've put one second of research into any of the statements you make in this post.

Really? Not only have I done my own research but I've been using MP3 players for 10 years, including 3 IPods, 2 of which broke within two years.

Considering most of the statements I have made are personal opinion, I don't see how I can be wrong. For instance, how is my finding apple headphones uncomfortable anything but my own opinion.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Rathji

I love my iPod, but the iPhones of recent models have sucked, especially for the price. I would much rather cough up $20 for some Skull Candy headphones.

Skull Candy are also awful headphones.

Unless you are willing to pay $150+ for headphones, I would recommend these:

http://www.meelec.com/default.asp

[HotHotHeat]

Originally Posted by blankall

Really? Not only have I done my own research but I've been using MP3 players for 10 years, including 3 IPods, 2 of which broke within two years.

Considering most of the statements I have made are personal opinion, I don't see how I can be wrong. For instance, how is my finding apple headphones uncomfortable anything but my own opinion.

Show me one consumer review site that says iPods have awful durability, are more expensive, have poor battery life, and don't let you drag and drop (from iTunes), and worse sound quality than other mp3 players. I agree the headphones are cheap, and uncomfortable for that matter.

If you're an audiophile, you'll know the sound quality reduction has more to do with the compression rate of an mp3 than the player. I'm slowly converting all my most played music into FLAC and it sounds much fuller and deeper on my iPhone.

Usually I don't care too much about people that come in these threads proudly wearing their Apple Hater badge, but you're being completely ridiculous.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

Show me one consumer review site that says iPods have awful durability, are more expensive, have poor battery life, and don't let you drag and drop (from iTunes), and worse sound quality than other mp3 players. I agree the headphones are cheap, and uncomfortable for that matter.

If you're an audiophile, you'll know the sound quality reduction has more to do with the compression rate of an mp3 than the player. I'm slowly converting all my most played music into FLAC and it sounds much fuller and deeper on my iPhone.

Usually I don't care too much about people that come in these threads proudly wearing their Apple Hater badge, but you're being completely ridiculous.

Do I really need to show you a consumer report to show you that Apple products are more expensive for what you get? Right now the Sony 8bg player is on sale at Costco for $80, how much does the comparable IPod go for?

The simple fact is, if I am paying considerably more for a product, I expect it to lead the field in quality. I've listened to Ipods and several other brands of MP3 players, and there is a noticeable differnence between them. While IPods are not the worst and are even above average, that simply is not good enough for the price point.

To each his own, I'll admit that the new nano is a cool looking device and some people will pay more for that. The rest of the line, however, I find lackign in even aesthetics.

[fredr123]

This is completely anecdotal but then again so are most of the accounts people have of iPods being crappy.

I have a first generation iPod Nano that I received as a Christmas gift in 2005. It's used every day for at least an hour, sometimes more on my commute to/from work (and before that, on my way to and from school). The battery life isn't what I think it once was but it is still alive and kicking.

I've been wanting to get an iPod Touch for a year or so now in order to watch movies on the bus but I can't justify doing that until this thing dies.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

Show me one consumer review site that says iPods have awful durability, are more expensive, have poor battery life, and don't let you drag and drop (from iTunes), and worse sound quality than other mp3 players. I agree the headphones are cheap, and uncomfortable for that matter.

I think you are completely missing the point; a lot of us don't want to use iTunes. We want to take the music and videos from one source, and without installing some 3rd party app on our computers. Especially a 3rd party app that takes control of your device and its content.

For example; I go to a bar and the house band has some good music. I can give the guy my Walkman and he can drop all of their MP3s onto my Walkman. If I try to do that with an iPod; as soon as I sync it with my home computer those tracks will be gone forever. Or let's say the band member tells me to please give those songs to anybody I like; with an iPod I cannot.

Yes, I'm sure there are ways around it. You can configure the software; install yet another 3rd party app, etc. Or with the Walkman it works the way it has always worked since Windows 95.

And iTunes' "drag and drop" really isn't. I had put a bunch of videos onto my iPhone; and then later on decided to add some more music. Because I didn't want to take up extra space on my netbook (where iTunes is installed) I deleted the videos from my netbook once they were on my iPhone. Why wouldn't I; they were already where I needed them to be. Turns out iTunes decided that seeing as they were no longer on the Netbook; they should also be removed from the iPhone.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by blankall

Skull Candy are also awful headphones.

Unless you are willing to pay $150+ for headphones, I would recommend these:

http://www.meelec.com/default.asp

yep, Skullcandys suck. They are just generic Chinese headphones that Skullcandy buys from the lowest bidder in Shen Zhen and then the Chinese factories put on random designs for the outside.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

Show me one consumer review site that says iPods have awful durability, are more expensive, have poor battery life, and don't let you drag and drop (from iTunes), and worse sound quality than other mp3 players. I agree the headphones are cheap, and uncomfortable for that matter.

If you're an audiophile, you'll know the sound quality reduction has more to do with the compression rate of an mp3 than the player. I'm slowly converting all my most played music into FLAC and it sounds much fuller and deeper on my iPhone.

Usually I don't care too much about people that come in these threads proudly wearing their Apple Hater badge, but you're being completely ridiculous.

Ultimately, it's up to the consumer to buy what they want. Just because you like your iphone or ipod and itunes and others think they are the scum of the earth, it is their money to spend and their opinion to have. You don't need to defend your own purchases or their company against someone's personal opinion.

My own personal dislike for Apple is based on the irrational fact that I hate their industrial design and software GUI design. It's just like how people just don't like a certain type of art or painting or music. I find Apple's corporate design, tight restrictions, and the fact that everybody has them highly offensive to my personal tastes.

I like FLACs too but their sheer size and difficulty in finding good FLACs is sometimes a negative for me. Generally I am not a big audiophile when on the go so it doesn't matter to me in a portable device where convenience and utility are the most important things to me.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

yep, Skullcandys suck. They are just generic Chinese headphones that Skullcandy buys from the lowest bidder in Shen Zhen and then the Chinese factories put on random designs for the outside.

I know it sounds dumb, but try a nicer set of headphones and then try going back to something like skullcandy or generic IPod. After having experiecned a nicer set, the old headphones become almost unlistenable.

I'm not an audiophile either who is going to pick apart sounds. It's an entirely different experience.

[Hack&Lube]

This is actually my personal favorite music player of all time.



One thing I have really missed since the days of minidisc and find problematic with all of today's prevalent Mp3 player designs is the loss of the remote.

I found having the remote was one of the best things as you never actually need to take the player out of your pocket (so you could keep it wherever) but you could easily control your music and volume via a tiny remote you could keep elsewhere or surreptitiously hidden on your body. I used to have the headphone wires inside my clothing and the remote on my belt loops just under my shirt and I could just easily and not awkwardly access the volume and music controls easily.

I with modern players how I have to physically take the whole thing out of my pocket and there is often no easy and tactile way to just change tracks and volume and play/pause without looking or accidentally hitting the wrong thing. With modern players there is often no easy way to attach them to your clothing either aside from aftermarket products that are clunky.

I've started to use my cellphone as I find the Sony Ericsson "Walkman" branded phones often actually have good media controls on the outside of the phone for track and volume controls. I have to use ######ed Sony M2 cards but that's okay since in the future, their phones will switch to micro SD.

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

This is actually my personal favorite music player of all time.

Wtf? Who listens to music on a defibrillator?

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Wtf? Who listens to music on a defibrillator?

MiniDisc and MD players have a certain quality no other music players from chunky 80s walkmans to plasticky cheap feeling Mp3 players can ever approach. Beautiful magnesium casing, intricate watch-like machinery, beautiful designs on discs, vacuum flourescent displays, etc.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeitenw...7623013616299/

Bloody gorgeous stuff. Big in Asia and Europe in the late 90s/early 2000s. Was never popular in NA.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

I found having the remote was one of the best things as you never actually need to take the player out of your pocket (so you could keep it wherever) but you could easily control your music and volume via a tiny remote you could keep elsewhere or surreptitiously hidden on your body. I used to have the headphone wires inside my clothing and the remote on my belt loops just under my shirt and I could just easily and not awkwardly access the volume and music controls easily.

I with modern players how I have to physically take the whole thing out of my pocket and there is often no easy and tactile way to just change tracks and volume and play/pause without looking or accidentally hitting the wrong thing. With modern players there is often no easy way to attach them to your clothing either aside from aftermarket products that are clunky.

I've started to use my cellphone as I find the Sony Ericsson "Walkman" branded phones often actually have good media controls on the outside of the phone for track and volume controls. I have to use ######ed Sony M2 cards but that's okay since in the future, their phones will switch to micro SD.

I can adjust the volume, forward and skip songs with the remote on my headphone wire on my iPhone. Plus with voice commands you can do pretty much everything else.

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

MiniDisc and MD players have a certain quality no other music players from chunky 80s walkmans to plasticky cheap feeling Mp3 players can ever approach. Beautiful magnesium casing, intricate watch-like machinery, beautiful designs on discs, vacuum flourescent displays, etc.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeitenw...7623013616299/

Bloody gorgeous stuff. Big in Asia and Europe in the late 90s/early 2000s. Was never popular in NA.

I'm aware of what MiniDisc players are... I was just cracking off about the rather hospital-esque look of the particular one you chose to illustrate your point.