Music Your choice for an Apple iPod replacement?

Radio isn't that bad. I'd rather have integrated DAB, but sometimes a bit of light radio can do some good. A bit of Enid on radio 1 really does help a long afternoon fly by.

 

The iriver h1xxx and h3xxx players are still the best to do this day. You most likely have to go used, but its worth it.

Most people usually go for some other player with considerably less features and overall lower quality.

 

Creative Zen or Zen X-Fi
X-Fi is like the touch; it has wifi, but no touch screen
The Zen is just the MP3 player version..
Both have a SD expansion and can take up to 32GB SD cards (SDHC is not confirmed atm...)

The Zen is pretty good (i have 2). That or an iPod Touch

 

A cheap 1gb USB stick with a tiny backlit screen. Those things we're the sex back then, and i still love mine now. Customer support? It never ever breaks. iTunes? Drag and drop! FM? Standard.

All the nonsense aside, sansa +1. I've played with an iPod classic for a few hours, and can honestly say i don't see what the fuss is about.

 

QFT. Of course they'll be interspersed with inane comments from 'Zany' DJs that seem to think the height of broadcasting is to channel Smashie and Nicey, and repeated ads for local double glazing companies and personal accident lawyers.

I loath commercial FM.

 

unless things have changed since i was looking at players, i'd stay away from the zen. it keeps the SD card data separate from the main song library, so if you want to listen to a song on the card you have to navigate out of the player songs and into the card songs. all other players integrate the tracks on the expansion memory with the tracks on the main memory into a single list.

all you FM haters - the radio isn't just music. it's also good for news, weather, traffic conditions, and sports. not everybody has a mobile broadband connection to get those things. and it doesn't hurt to have it in there. it's not like it costs extra - all the players that have it are cheaper than the ipod, so if you never use it you haven't lost anything, but you never know when you might want it.

 

I have an iRivier h10 that's about 3 years old now and still going strong, I absolutely love it. So unless iRiver have gone seriously down hill in those three years I'd recommend checking their hardware out.

I've also got the rockbox firmware on there, you should try it if there's a version for the player you get, it's so much better than the standard OS's

 

I would have agreed with this 1 or 2 years ago, but really now this isn't true. I used to have a h320, and compared to my 80gb Classic, it's ridiculous. It's huge, the interface is awful (even with Rockbox) and while it supported a shitload of audio codecs, I only ever used mp3s (what's the point of having lossless music on the move?)
Yes, it may have a few more features, but the ipod is a lot nicer to use, and actually fits in my pocket.

 

My H120 still goes strong (and sounds great) but only really gets used for long journeys, i just use my phone for day to day use with a 1gb card it stores plenty for a few days.

 

I tried a creative zen and I hated the fact that the screen would scratch so easily. I also didn't like the limited storage. Other than that it did everything else really well. the dj function and playlist were really well setup.

In the end I traded up to an 80gb zune. I dont use radio often but the ability to listen to a song and tag it for download later is pretty cool. And unlimited downloads for 15/month is good too.
I find the interface is easy to use as well. I would be nice if the playlist had more functions and I dont understand why microsoft wont let us use it as a storage device.
Other than that, battery life is good, screen doesn't scratch, it just works.

 

http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/25/cowons-s9-curve-with-3-3-inch-amoled-touch-display-impresses-k/

^ This. I'm picking one up next time I have a big order for Newegg

 

Zen Vision M here, it's built like a tank, i've dropped it more times than i would want, and onto proper solid surfaces, it's a shame creative no longer A: Support it and B: Make it. I use the FM tuner quiet alot, more than i thought i would, it is handy, when we had the massive snow fall in the UK, i was kept upto date from the local radio station about weather and travel etc.

Sam

 

very happy with the zen i bought 3 weeks ago!

 

I'd suggest the iPhone, only because I don't actually use it as an iPod (I have like 5 songs on it.. :S) but as a multipurpose device - i.e. I can enjoy games on it, surf the internet, call people and text. The option to listen to music is there, and you get a lot of other entertaining stuff.

 

I use a Sony Walkman NWZ-A818.

Great little 8GiB player... At £74.99, it was a really awesome price... especially when you factor in the in-ear headphones that come packaged with it, worth £40.

Can't fault the audio quality on it, although to notice the difference in quality between this and an iPod you're gonna need a pair of £100 Shure headphones.

Having said this, I intend to move on and upgrade to a proper PMP soon, which I can actually use to watch video. (the A818 has a tiny screen). I was looking at the Cowon S9, which features a great AMOLED Capacitative touch screen, plus AM/FM tuner... but the UI isn't terribly well designed, and doesn't function too smoothly... Plus there's no wifi, and the attraction of Apps on the iTouch is just too tempting. Not to mention the 3.5" screen on the iPod.. compared to the 3.3" on the S9.

So yeah, I'll soon be investing in an iPod touch. Although I'll keep my Walkman, I'm too proud of the value I got out of it to throw it away.

 

dude, the zen is not limited. you can expand it via SD cards, unlike the Zune, which is not expandable.

 

I bought the Sony NWZ-S639F, after reading the review on trustedreviews.com, and its bloody awesome. Miles better in terms of quality than the old iPod it replaced (mine was a video iPod).

Come with a really good set of bundled headphones, metal construction, video playback, FM stereo. Really simple and easy to use, drag and drop or window media player compatible. Also its not got a stupid glossy finish like everything seems to have these days so easy to keep looking clean.

Also the sony rip off of genius works really well...