I could use my Nokia N82 to play music from, but it feels dirty, I want something a bit more dedicated to my music. Everyone who has one seems to rave about the iPod excessively. To a point where I start to think that they're trying to convince themselves it was a good idea to have paid more for it rather than one of Creative's or Sony's offerings. Can anyone recommend an MP3 player with great sound quality, or would anyone recommend getting an iPod over anything else? I'm looking for only 4-8GB of space, in £50-£150 region, lower part if possible.
Easy . . . the Sony NWZ-A818. 8gb memory, Great sound, many many good reviews claiming it's the best (for sound), long battery life (32hrs), small light and solidly built, easy to use, syncs great with Windows Media Player 11 or you can just drag'n'copy files onto it, has loads of eq and sound processing effects (I don't use any of them), comes with well rated head phones, plays mp3/wma/aac. Play.com had this listed at £64.99 with a voucher that I think was on hotdealsuk. Currently it's £69.99 at Play, £74.99 at Amazon. WMP11 will convert down when syncing to the 818, thus my music is ripped into WMP11 at 256KBps MP3, then put into the Sony at 128Kbps wma format. Only played through the hi-fi can I start to tell a difference from the extra compression I apply to the player. I much prefer WMP to iTunes - with a lot of music it works quicker, finds album art better, and gives me the interface I prefer. I use mine with a AudioLab 8000S amp and Monitor Audio speakers, Creative's excellent T20's (£44.95), and the supplied headphones . . . am very happy with the sound. With the T20's makes an easy to travel with salsa music setup . . . but I also play normal stuff through it too. The newer model is the NWZ-A828KB, which brings wireless headphones into the package (along with the 818's std phones also), and a slightly larger screen. This has been as cheap as £120 from Play and Amazon. Currently £129.99 at Play. BTW, The Creative T20's are amazing, great sound for the money, music (rock, pop, easy listening) sounds really good on them. Good tight bass (for the money) and plenty of volume. They, in a relative kind of way way to the £1000+ hi-fi, really do manage to hold their own. The hi-fi has to be setup properly (on well positioned speaker stands) for it's advantage to be obvious.
Well my personal iPod killer was my Samsung YP-K5: Here is mine (the newer model) A very cool, shiny little chocolate-bar style MP3 player. The party piece is the little speaker on the back, which packs quite the punch for something of that size. The newer models have video capabilites, bluetooth and the audio quality is second to none (no FLAC support though...). Battery life is good, with 5-6 hours with the speaker, and 24+ on headphones (my own tests). The headphones it comes with are quite interestingly shaped, though give out awesome bass, and are really clear. Watch out because there is a less capable, older model, and the front fascia has a larger plastic surround if you see what I mean: And if you want to add to that coolness, this has been featured in several Hip-Hop music videos, unlike any other conventional MP3 player. (except the iPod which was in a 50 Cent video in 2003) No complaints, and I would recommend it. Its easy to use and navigate, and very capable. Minor niggles perhaps - there are no iPod-ish playlists and the screen is a bit of a fingerprint magnet... This is of course, if you want a small jukebox to take with you everywhere with your favourite tunes. 2GB is more than enough really to take all your favourite tracks which you listen to, with you, as well as your newest albums. If you want somewhere to store your WHOLE music collection, you'll need something much larger and more expensive, like a larger, more expensive iPod, or my choice, the Archos line of products.... Hope it helps MGT EDIT: And I picked mine up for £90 from LX Direct (sale price. The original price was £110)
iRiver H320 + rockbox custom firmware = WIN 20GB hard rive, comes in a 40gb model also. 16hr battery life Found mine on ebay as a new for £160 Internal mic Line in / External mic input Line out Headphones out USB 1.1 host port, for connecting mem sticks, digital cameras other drag and drop mp3 players, for transfering files without the need for a pc. FM Radio. Good audio reproduction. Oh yer... its all plug and play, no drivers or software required, just drag and drop any files from the pc to the mp3 player, and visa versa it gets detected as a usb hard drive, so compatible with multiple OS's also. Rockbox adds a whole bunch of extra audio and video formats that you can play back on the device, along with theme settings / EQ / picture viewer / playlist editor / bunch of games(below) and other plugins, well worth a look. FreeDoom anyone?
i have a zune 80, i love it, which considering its from microsoft is high praise They also do 4 and 8gb versions that use flash instead of HD's iirc
I think the Sony A818 has my attention, I've heard good reviews about it, and with a brand like Sony, you know you're getting something high quality. The Samsung looks really good, but I'm not a fan of touch-screens, and with the 8GB Sony at £30 less, it's a much easier decision. Thanks for the advice guys.
Another one worth considering is the Sansa E280, absolutely awesome player, and seriously cheap now. Wahey! Big up the H3x0 crew! I got myself an H340 a few years ago and it's still brilliant. I had to do a battery change about 8 months ago (which is seriously effortsome btw, avoid), and it's just like new.
I've posted in a lot of these threads, and amazingly, i'm *still* using a Rio Karma Might be missing a few things like a colour screen, but sound wise its awesome, better than the ipods.
I have a Sony VGF-AP1L It doesn't like me Go on the Creative Website, you can pick a Zen Vision M for £91
I bought my dad a Sansa player for fathers day and the sound quality is incredible for the price, I was very impressed.
If you are worried about sound quality then this is the place to be. However, if you are worried about your bank balance, then I recommend never clicking on that link, ever. Ever
Has anyone used a Cowon D2? They look awesome and get a lot of good reviews (Which? Trustedreviews...)
I've heard great things about the Cowon D2, but have never actually seen one in real life. I personally love my Creative Zen, and I've heard of the new Zunes being nice mp3 players. As far as iPods go, everyone seems to say they are nice, but a lot of people just say that because they have only used an iPod or they like the social status of it. Personally, I think the current iPod Nanos are trash.
Dude the best Mp3 I used is my Nokia N81 8GB This thing rocks the hell out. Perfect bass with Sony Earphones. Perfect sound perfect battery life. perfect style. And it's combat. I can do any thing I want from MSN to internet to music to calls. I have WIFI there
If I were you I'd use the nokia and save money. The one piece of advice I'll add though is that bluetooth stereo headphones are coming down in price weekly and getting better too. The ease of use not being tethered to the player and not having to dis-entangle the wires pre-use is something I wouldn't go back from. I'm sure the sound quality isn't up to the £100+ wired headphones selection but it all depends on what you're after and how serious you are about quality. So I'd advise getting something that supports the a2dp bluetooth profile. As for ipods I think having one just shows a lack of informed choice and a striving to fit in with the crowd. As for me I use my HP iPaq 214 for music. Oh... and for SatNav, Internet, Email, Word, Excel, Games, Video (Media Center Recorded TV mostly) etc. I'm a multi purpose device fan!
My personal choice for on the move listening is a Sony Ericsson K770 with a 4gb memory card, and a 3.5mm adaptor/remote control thingy () with a decent pair of in ear monitors. In my experience the difference in sound quality between MP3 players and Walkman phones is negligible, so if I have my phone on me all the time anyway, why bother with a separate player? However, having said this, I do have slight audiophile tendencies. So my EEE with an external dac + headphone amp and some external storage acts as my luggable hifi music system.
Well, I was focusing on really good sound quality, I wanted to get a set of Sennheiser or Bose noise-isolating headphones and didn't want to play music from a source which wasn't up to the players standards. Which is at first what worried me about using my N82. Bluetooth-wise, it may sound strange but I enjoy knowing I'm connected, plus the in-line remotes are useful and the wire to fiddle with when bored is something that I find comforting. Also the amount that I'd use my phone for music would mean I probably wouldn't get enough battery-life out of it to act as a phone at the end of the day!
