My wife has just announced that she would like to get me an MP3 player for my birthday. Now I know this isn't Bushcraft but I do like my music sometimes. Any suggestions and experiences to share? 
MP3 Players
- Thread starter fred gordon
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They are fantastic Fred, I have a sony 20 gig jobby, nearly all my music is on there and you can select by artist, genre, etc etc, so you can play music to your mood. I have fairly recently bought some small external speakers, which is great for the bedroom, kitchen, tent, etc. Also up my local pub, they only have an old record player, but it has av (I think) sockets in the back and I can plug the mp3 player into it. I have a selection of music on the player called pub mix, which I have included songs for all the locals up there, they chose them, as well as me. It goes down well. I have also used it for jogging, errrrrrrrm, last went about a year ago 
. If you fly, they are good to take along, but best of all, you can listen to your music whenever the mood takes you...
. If you fly, they are good to take along, but best of all, you can listen to your music whenever the mood takes you...
Id recommend getting a cheap 512mb mp3 players from eBay for about £8 (same one is £20 from Argos) it holds something like 120 songs or eight hours worth of audio books. Unlike ipods and the like, there is no upgrades to pay for or fees to keep paying, and if you break it out there in the bush, its not going to cost and arm and a leg or your first born to replace it.
I would second going for a cheaper alternative to an ipod. IMO although they are good they are bit overpriced and Apple have retailers by the short and curlies so cheap deals are hard to find.
Depending on how much music you have anything between 1-4GB should be enough for most people.
I use my Nokia phone that has a music player on it. The sound quality is good, i upgraded the memory card to 2Gb which will hold about 150 high quality MP3's. i use it to walk to work on a morning
Depending on how much music you have anything between 1-4GB should be enough for most people.
I use my Nokia phone that has a music player on it. The sound quality is good, i upgraded the memory card to 2Gb which will hold about 150 high quality MP3's. i use it to walk to work on a morning
I've got a 4gb ipod mini that my missus got me from New York a while ago - it had a battery problem (a known fault), sent it off to apple and they replaced it pretty swiftly.
Its great, Plenty of music on it, nice interface etc, itunes is pretty easy to use, both for putting existing CDs onto your ipod and buying stuff online.
There are a lot of phones that have mp3 players on them these days though, and like arkangel said you can get fairly decent sized memory cards for pretty cheap.
As for this:-
Not sure what this means, software updates are free, and there's no 'fees' - what are you referring to?
To be honest if I was you I would wait for the next generation of iPods to come around, then see if you can get one of the current generation from the US
Its great, Plenty of music on it, nice interface etc, itunes is pretty easy to use, both for putting existing CDs onto your ipod and buying stuff online.
There are a lot of phones that have mp3 players on them these days though, and like arkangel said you can get fairly decent sized memory cards for pretty cheap.
As for this:-
Not sure what this means, software updates are free, and there's no 'fees' - what are you referring to?
To be honest if I was you I would wait for the next generation of iPods to come around, then see if you can get one of the current generation from the US
I got one of the 1GB splash proof ones from Argos - has survived the Land Rover so far.
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produ...630.MP3+players+with+portable+solid+state.htm
Get over 100 tracks on it. When I get bored of them I just swap for other. Solid state are good if it is going to have a hard life.
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produ...630.MP3+players+with+portable+solid+state.htm
Get over 100 tracks on it. When I get bored of them I just swap for other. Solid state are good if it is going to have a hard life.
dommyracer said:
If you use any one of the most popular subscription services to download your music like Itunes or napster, then, when you cancel your subscription you lose the ability to play that music, (music you have paid for) you are limited to the amount of machines you can use the files on, and the back up copies you can make, Apple will use your computer to track what music you play/download, and send you adverts and spam. You are limited in so many ways that make it not worthwhile or cheap not if you want to keep it 100% legal
I keep my downloading legal and I keep the music when I move on to a different service. I can transfer my mp3s on to any compatible Mp3 device, something that you cannot do if you have an apple based machine. Apple sells music encoded in the AAC format. It also adds its own Digital Rights Management (DRM) making it incompatible with music players other than the Apple iPods.
I hate renting my music I like to buy it out right...
I agree with the above post. iPod is a triumph of marketing and I'm sure that the players are quite good but they aren't any better than the other top manufacturer's products that can often be purchased more cheaply.
The advantage of name brand MP3 players over the cheaper unbranded models is better documentation, Website support and firmware updates.
The cheaper ones often don't fully support ID3 tags (http://www.id3.org/). These are highly useful for helping you keep your music organised and for searching for songs using various criteria.
Some players don't fully support long file names, don't display the song titles properly in the menu, don't organise the folders and songs in a logical sequence, don't allow you to sort by the criteria that you prefer, etc.
So IMO opinion it's best to stick with a brand you fell you can trust. There are plenty of those though, like Creative, iRiver, Philips, Sony, Archos, Sandisk, etc. Some of the lesser known brands could be just as good too if you check out the specs.
On the other hand you could get a cheap and cheerful one. It will play your tunes and if you lose or break it then it's no big deal you can get a new one for less than 20 quid. I've found the sound quality on the cheap ones to be quite acceptable, a lot of the sound quality is in the headphones which can be upgraded separately if you so desire.
The advantage of name brand MP3 players over the cheaper unbranded models is better documentation, Website support and firmware updates.
The cheaper ones often don't fully support ID3 tags (http://www.id3.org/). These are highly useful for helping you keep your music organised and for searching for songs using various criteria.
Some players don't fully support long file names, don't display the song titles properly in the menu, don't organise the folders and songs in a logical sequence, don't allow you to sort by the criteria that you prefer, etc.
So IMO opinion it's best to stick with a brand you fell you can trust. There are plenty of those though, like Creative, iRiver, Philips, Sony, Archos, Sandisk, etc. Some of the lesser known brands could be just as good too if you check out the specs.
On the other hand you could get a cheap and cheerful one. It will play your tunes and if you lose or break it then it's no big deal you can get a new one for less than 20 quid. I've found the sound quality on the cheap ones to be quite acceptable, a lot of the sound quality is in the headphones which can be upgraded separately if you so desire.
avoid the ipod, battery life is still pants, headphones are pants, and bass responce is poor...
i have a cheap flash mp3 player for when im out camping / walking (incase it gets wet etc) but its no good as a serious music player
and for normal use i have a creative zen sleek they now do smaller zen's great battery life, good bass responce and full range and a good sennheiser headset. but i replaced it with a black corded set for obvious reasons.
mine has a 20gig hdd and ive had no probs at all.
try and get one that will play Ogg Vorbis format, and convert cds to ogg not mp3 (its a better format)
dont forget to look out for podcasts (search yahoo / podcastally etc)
i have a cheap flash mp3 player for when im out camping / walking (incase it gets wet etc) but its no good as a serious music player
and for normal use i have a creative zen sleek they now do smaller zen's great battery life, good bass responce and full range and a good sennheiser headset. but i replaced it with a black corded set for obvious reasons.
mine has a 20gig hdd and ive had no probs at all.
try and get one that will play Ogg Vorbis format, and convert cds to ogg not mp3 (its a better format)
dont forget to look out for podcasts (search yahoo / podcastally etc)
Tadpole said:
No subscription service will work with the iPod (because they all use Microsoft DRM). iTunes doesn't offer a subscription service, and Steve Jobs has always been against the idea: "people want to own their music".
You are limited, but I doubt it will effect most people (only those who use more than 5 computers). Personally I would like to play my music on more than 5 computers (don't always use the same ones at college), so I don't normally buy DRMed music, but every now and then, when you just want 1 song it's easier to pay the 79p and get it instantly than downloading it illegally (if one was so inclined). Anyway, I know what I'm paying for, and no one is forcing me to shop at iTunes.
You can make an unlimited number of backup copies, both data and audio.
The only things Apple send their customers are:
- e-invoices
- Artists alerts (if you've chosen to be alerted when a certain artist adds new material to the store)
- A weekly roundup of what's been added to the store over the last week. I believe this is an opt-in feature when you first open your account, and can be cancelled.
I've never received any adverts or spam from Apple (only special offer notifications which I've opted to receive)
If it's not Apples FairPlay DRM, it'll be Microsoft DRM. Nearly all legal download sites limited what you can do with it's music, and the ones that don't will happily work with the iPod.
iPods will happily play unprotected MP3s; but most legal download sites use DRMed WMAs.
It might be just me, but I think Dobly's AAC format beats the pants off MP3... it's an old technology.
True. This is the key to the whole argument... against iTunes. You can buy an iPod and not buy things from iTunes though; nobody's forcing you.
I don't want this to be perceived as a fanboy's comment (although that may be unavoidable), but it just seems like you don't actually know anything about iTunes/iPods.
BTW, I won't recommend the iPod to anyone. It's not that I don't like it (I've got the 60GB 5G), but I think just like everything else, what's perfect for one person will be awful for another. I think you just need to think of what it is you want from an MP3 player, then find one with those features from a well known brand and pick that one.
Levi said:
I did my research before deciding not to buy a ipod so any changes that happened afterwards did/do not interest me. I, along many many none rabid fans of ipod know enough not to tie my self in to renting my music at the pleasure of anyone else, I choose not to rent, films or book or girls or music.
fan boy away all you like you are the one paying for it after all.
Tadpole said:
Did you read even the first sentence of my post?
NO "RENTING" SERVICE WILL WORK WITH THE IPOD. NEVER HAS.
Even if it did, the iPod is an independent hardware unit that isn't tied to using any online music store... and never has been. The iTunes store didn't even come along until 2 years after the iPod.
Don't go for an ipod its over priced tat.
Creative MP3 players have much better signal to noise ratio. Apple hasn't published the ipods but when I've compared my girl friends ipod to my creative Zen the sound quality difference is obvious.
Anyhow MP3 players are starting to become obsolete as phones become better and better at being an MP3 player as well.
Creative MP3 players have much better signal to noise ratio. Apple hasn't published the ipods but when I've compared my girl friends ipod to my creative Zen the sound quality difference is obvious.
Anyhow MP3 players are starting to become obsolete as phones become better and better at being an MP3 player as well.
I have one like this, only its a 1Gb version, but the same specs apart from memory size
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Genuine-2GB-M...9QQihZ020QQcategoryZ73839QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
great stuff, good for music, and I used it to record lectures last year at a course I was on in university, works very well, and as said, if you loose it, its not the end of the world.
I've been told you can use programmes like Limewire to download music for free, but as that may be illegal, I've not tried it and would not advocate anyone breaking UK or international law by using this free programme
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Genuine-2GB-M...9QQihZ020QQcategoryZ73839QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
great stuff, good for music, and I used it to record lectures last year at a course I was on in university, works very well, and as said, if you loose it, its not the end of the world.
I've been told you can use programmes like Limewire to download music for free, but as that may be illegal, I've not tried it and would not advocate anyone breaking UK or international law by using this free programme
I am a HUGE fan of creative labs. I have a 30 gig one, that I am currently filling up with tons of vids. It can be had, in the US for about 250 or so. IMHO the ipod is way overhyped. Which works, if you buy others, as you arent paying for the Apple name 
I'm pleased with this one 
http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/default.php?cat=7&type=7010&man=96&filterwords=&go=SEARCH&comp=
takes SD mem. cards and just under £9
chck out their battery and SD card deals Fast post and they take paypal no connections blah did blah Danny
http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/default.php?cat=7&type=7010&man=96&filterwords=&go=SEARCH&comp=
takes SD mem. cards and just under £9
chck out their battery and SD card deals Fast post and they take paypal no connections blah did blah Danny
