iPOD

Nuno if you want listen to music on the move get an iPod.

People will no doubt tell you to get and iRiver or one of those sony creations. The only downside to the iRiver is its fugly and cheap, the sony as usual is let down by software and their never ending wish to be the proprietary format of the world.

iPod all the way, 23 million people cannot be wrong. Be patient though apparently apple have teamed with Motorola for an iPod phone due out next tuesday.

Yep, get an ipod.But don't rely on those soppy white headphones. Get yourself something better & more comfy. I went for the sennheiser px100.Cheap & great.This is a fast moving market, & I guess the next great thing is only 'round the corner, but an ipod does me nicely.
matt.

I'd also still recommend the iPod over the other options. In particular it benefits from having a vast range of accessories available and in particular I've found the iTrip FM transmitter to be useful in vehicles that can't use a tape-adaptor.

Just buy. Use iTunes to transfer and manage your files.

iconic-for good reason.

Get an iPod. I did and I love it for on the move music. I changed the headphones straight away for Sennheiser PX200's in black as the supplied ones aren't great and they also scream out please mug me I have an iPod!

The best thing i ever for it though was a Dension cradle for the car.

http://www.dension.com/main.htm

I now have all my music in the car without having to copy CD's. Also with the Dension, all the car stereo controls operate the iPod so no chance of an accident because I'm trying to play with the iPod. It also charges the ipod whilst in the cradle so I don't have to take the ipod into the house to charge it each day. This means I now just tend to leave the Ipod in the car and so I never forget it.

Nuno, if it is musical quality you are after then one of the last batch of iRiver H140 players would be a good idea as it has a digital output to use a better quality external DAC when you want to, plus you can record with it. Unfortunately, their newer models have dropped the digital inputs and outputs along with support for WAV files. The iPod is a nice styling exercise, but there are other options worthy of serious consideration.

Nick

Nick you are right the iPod is a nice style. However don't sell it short. Its seamless intergration with itunes is what sets it apart from anything else on the market.

Garyi, I guess that the iTunes software may be appealing for some users, but I prefer to drag and drop audio files onto a player that appears as a simple USB drive to my computer.

One appealing thing about the iPod, in my view, is the lossless compression option at half the file size of a WAV file. The downside is that it is a proprietary format.

Nick

Numo

The iPod is the one to go for. You can use Apple Lossless or AAC and get good results. Some cars like BMW now come with an iPod connector so you can use it on the move, The naim iSupply works with the iPod too.

If you use a Mac rather than Windoze then an iPod has even more advantages over the competition. Apple's service is very good too.

The software is excellent too - iTunes as well as the software that helps you find things on the iPod.

Rotf

Another vote for ipod/itunes. It's an excellent system and works well together.

Nick - maybe drag and drop if you didn't have too much music, I have roughly 7000 tracks, there's no way I'm going to manage my music like that.

I use AAC 128, and while it's outstanding, it's more than good enough for use on the move/in the car, which is where I use it.

It works well on the mac, but also seems to be great on windows, and there's plenty of 3rd party software out there that gives you the extra functionality (I know people who use theirs to sync their diary from outlook, for example).


regards,

Tam

quote:

Nick - maybe drag and drop if you didn't have too much music

Well I'm at 1000 tracks so far. Maybe I'm stuck in the album mentality :-), I just have a folder for each genre, containing a subfolder with each artist's name (or Various Artists for compilation albums), and within this subsubfolders with the album titles that contain the individual tracks.

Nick

quote:

Originally posted by Nick_S:
Garyi, I guess that the iTunes software may be appealing for some users, but I prefer to drag and drop audio files onto a player that appears as a simple USB drive to my computer.

Damn right! Have they got rid of that sodding DRM stuff in iTunes yet?

Also, when are they bringing one out that can play CDs and use normal AA batteries? Oh yeah, they haven't - I'll stick with my discman then. Plus if that gets dropped, it's only £14.99 from Richers - if you drop an iPod, it's almost certainly bye-bye-hard-drive.

Sorry - I still remain to be convinced by any mp3 player.

Your discman is several times the size of my ipod and that's before you have to deal with the question of which cds you're going to carry around with you.

Not to mention the fact that if you're just going to go for the cheapest option, then surely you wouldn't be here at the naim forum!

Don't see how DRM is an issue since it only concerns the stuff you buy from the itunes store. Since I (and I suspect most ipod users round here) just use it for ripping my own cds, I fail to see how it's an issue. Anyway the itunes drm is pretty flexible, and doesn't really present a problem unless you're trying to do stuff which is rightly illegal.


regards,

Tam

quote:

Originally posted by Bruce Woodhouse:
Just buy. Use iTunes to transfer and manage your files.

iconic-for good reason.

OK I will take care. A good software is important. I know that there are another MP3 players,but I don´t know if the software is all right!

Dom that is a poor argument and you know it lol.

As for cataloging music Nick, if you look in your itunes music folder you will find that all the music is put into artist folder then album folders. There is software available to customise the folders to show the album covers.

What I am saying is, by all means ignore the itunes software but you can still use it to import your music and then use the itunes music folder to do all that legacy Windows Explorer thing.

quote:

I know that there are another MP3 players,but I don´t know if the software is all right!

Using EAC to extract the audio to WAV files, calling LAME to compress to MP3 format, is an excellent set up for MS-Windows systems. Both are free to download from the Web. EAC does multiple reads for error-free extraction from the CD (slowing down from 8x to 0.2x as necessary on my system). Most extraction software uses a single pass of the CD which is inferior and many don't adjust for the offset of the CD-drive. No additional software is needed for iRivers, once you have your MP3 files it is drag and drop onto the player to listen to them.

Whatever you get, make sure you have a two-year warranty. There is now an EU directive covering this (more on the subject in the PFM Death of an iPod thread).

Nick

You know it makes sense

Having used both I'd go Creative

Jonathan

quote:

Originally posted by domfjbrown:
Also, when are they bringing one out that can play CDs and use normal AA batteries? Oh yeah, they haven't - I'll stick with my discman then. Plus if that gets dropped, it's only £14.99 from Richers - if you drop an iPod, it's almost certainly bye-bye-hard-drive.

I've dropped my iPod several times already and, other than a few scratches, it's fine. I do agree that the non-replaceable battery is exceptionally dumb however I think you can get add-on battery packs which attach via the charging connector.

The salesman told me about a PD model for 150 Euros.I would like to try it,I don´t know if is possible!

A what?

Creative has too good MP3,no?

Nuno

I follow a couple of easy rules that have not let me down yet.

For Hifi I buy naim where possible (Rega or Linn if not - oh yeah and Phonosophie) - I've tried other brands and they just don't work for me.

For computers I buy Apple (well I do have an Amiga too, but that's because I'm slightly mad) - yes I do have to use Windoze at work sometimes, but my Apple runs that too in an OS X Window, as well as Linux.

I know an iPod with a Mac will just work and give excellent results. I also know Windoze users who enjoy the iPod. iTunes software is wonderful IMHO. There are some great add-ons too [/URL]here and here.

Why not audition a couple of portables and then you'll know that iPod is the best (or that it isn't and you should by something else)

ROTF

Well I know that iPOD has a good support.I will ask advice from a few friends,and iPOD is not so expensive!

quote:

Originally posted by Nick_S:
Unfortunately, their newer models have dropped the digital inputs and outputs along with support for WAV files.

Nick,

I have an H340. Digital in/out are indeed missing, but a recent firmware has added support for WAV replay (only - ie not recording).

It really is a big step forward from even the very best of lossy compressed formats.

It would be great if the player supported "lossless compression", but one thing at a time.

However, there is a project called RockBox , which is porting a complete replacement "open source" firmware into the H120/H140!! It sounds pretty mad, but they're getting there, too.

Lots of Codecs supported or on the way - MP3 (of course), WAV, OGG/Vorbis (thank goodness), WavPack (lossless), MP2 (eg replay of direct recordings off FreeView). Not sure which others. Also not sure which of those will be supported for recording.

They've just made the first tentative steps toward porting this onto the H320 & H340. The hardware is pretty similar between the machines, so they hope it won't be too long before it's up-and-running.

cheers, Martin

PS I think there's another project to do something similar for the iPod - called "Podzilla", I think.

Pardon my ignorance but how configurable are these MP3 devices?

Do they use standard notebook components. ie Can you replace the 20G drive with an 80G drive?

Is the OS stored on the drive or in ROM?

cheers
Gus