which mp3 player ?

Posted by: scottyhammer on 09 May 2005

hi all,
apologies if this thread has been done before but cant seem to find it.
im going on hols soon and will be mainly lying around in sun drinking beer (heaven).
i fancy an ipod to listen to my music, BUT have been reading recently about the rio carbon !
they say this little baby is superior for sound when used with quality headphones . (which i have ). anyway my question is : are there any forum members out there who have any experience of the rio or the ipod and have done a direct comparison ?
i will only be using the mp3 player for music for now, so am not really interested in the photo or files side of things.
thanks in advance.
scotty

Posted on: 09 May 2005 by Ian G.

When I bought my MP3 player about two years ago I found the Creative JB3 player to sound a little better than the IPODs. Software was definitely better on the IPOD. But I don't listen to software, so I bought the JB3. Not sure if the balance has changed meantime but I'd recommend checking out Creative's offerings.

Ian

Posted on: 09 May 2005 by scottyhammer

thanks ian, anyone else got a more up to date recommendation?
scotty

Posted on: 09 May 2005 by Not For Me

I have the iRIver 430 which I am pleased with.

It does OGG as well as MP3 and others, and sounds quite good to.

DS

Posted on: 09 May 2005 by Tam

Ipod for me. Sounds fine (admittedly not as good as my naim, but if it was I'd want my money back). Good user interface (I know, that doesn't effect the sound, but if it's a pain to use, I don't think it matters how good the sound is). Of course, the joy of naim and the like is that you get the best of both worlds.

regards,

Tam

Posted on: 12 May 2005 by Steve O

Scottyhammer,
I have the iRiver H10. Sound is pretty good - not hi-fi good, but fine for in ear listening or background music through your system. It uses Sennheiser earphones. You can get a docking station for £15 that will allow you to copy direct from your hi-fi. Software is a doddle. So easy to use my Dad has just got one too (even though I had to buy it!)
Regards,
Steve O.

Posted on: 12 May 2005 by J.N.

Dave;

Martin Payne (who you met) chose the I-River over the i-pod for technical reasons which are beyond my comprehension.

Personally; I love the tactile delight of the i-pod. It's a beautiful device to handle and use - and it sounds pretty good to me.

You can't go far wrong with either of these.

John.

Posted on: 13 May 2005 by matthewr

For large HDD based players iRiver (features, value) or iPod (looks, ergonomics). Unless you wait for the next generation and look at the new Toshibas and Sonys.

For small 5GB HDD players Rio Carbon easily the best IMHO.

For small solid state the Sony one that looks like a lighter gets rave reviews over the iPod Shuffle.

Matthew

Posted on: 13 May 2005 by Bob McC

Creative Touch

Posted on: 13 May 2005 by scottyhammer

thanks to all of you for your advice
bob, creative touch ??
please explain.
scotty

Posted on: 13 May 2005 by arth-rot

Speaking of the Sony lighter: I've got one, and with a Sennheiser PX100 (or much better, a Beyer DT990pro) it has excellent sound! Also, the battery seems to last forever.

With a 256k rate of atrac3plus you can fit about 8 cd's onto 1G. For me that's enough, but you can use a lower bitrate of course. And it's not so mp3 friendly, so if you're not ripping your cd's anyway you may need something else. And finally, the software is a bit copyright paranoid - reinstall windows, and you'll have to re-rip your cd collection. (guess what I had to do? grr!)

All in all, warmly recommended (and yes, people will say 'oh, I thought you didn't smoke..

/Arthur