mp3 player that is not an ipod

[kb12]

Hi, I am thinking of getting an mp3 players but do not want an ipod. I am usually very against mp3s and wont be using it for anything but headphone listening. Ill probably get a nice pair of shure's or something. What is a good priced and good sounding player that is not an ipod? Thanks!

[theodoric]

Why not an iPod? There's a reason it's the #1 player. Actually, a bunch of reasons.

[steve gibson]

If you are willing to spend that much for earphones (which I recommend) why not an Ipod? I had a Dell which I gave to my father. Then bought a pod. I like the Ipod much better and they are similar in price. Creative is close as well. I have used one and prefer the Ipod.

[theodoric]

FWIW: I've played with almost all of them, including the Philips, Creatives, Sonys, etc. The iPods (all of them) are better-sounding, have a more intuitive interface, seem to be more rugged and reliable, and have good battery life.

If you don't want an iPod because of the stigma of the white box, get a black one. And IMHO, the Etymotic earphones are better than the Shures.

[BeerCan]

If you find a rio karma on ebay you can load it with flac's. That way your music will be lossless instead of the lossy mp3's.

Or you can see if rockbox.org has a firmware for another player that will allow you to play flac's or wavpacks.

I use a karma and I love it.

My opinion of IPODS is they are #1 because of marketing and form and not sound. Just my $0.02

[CarlV]

I bought Hi MD and love it. It records even in PCM (redbook) or using Sony's new attrac3 plus records for hours. The quality non PCM setting I can put a dozen albums on the removeable 1 gig disk and the headphone listening is very impressive.
You can also super compress to put "a hundred" albums on if you do not mind the mp3 sound.


Carl

[JimmyNeutron]

My niece gave me her ipod because she upgraded to the ipod video. I have been using for almost 3 years now an Archos Jukebox player. I have never replaced the batteries on my Archos (they are user replaceable with standard AA recharchables), I have upgraded the hard drive from the OEM 20 gig to an 80 gig (they are user replaceable), I have mishandled the unit by dropping it many, many times and it still works (gotta love the little blue rubber corner bumpers on the unit). It is not the most stylish, smallish, or lightest MP3 player out there, but I've gotten more than my money's worth - and continue to do so. The ipod? Well, it's so scratched and scuffed with only 4 month's of use that I'm embarressed to show it (the shiny surface scratches very easily). Oh yeah, another reason she gave it to me was because the battery died - after only 4 MONTHS!!! I replaced the battery and compared the sound of the Archos and ipod. They sound similar at high bit rates with good earphones. They are both easy to use. But the ipod costs twice what the Archos costs and failed way too soon. iPod ain't worth crap in my book - pure marketing at the younger and hipper audience.

[JimmyNeutron]

I bought Hi MD and love it. It records even in PCM (redbook) or using Sony's new attrac3 plus records for hours. The quality non PCM setting I can put a dozen albums on the removeable 1 gig disk and the headphone listening is very impressive.
You can also super compress to put "a hundred" albums on if you do not mind the mp3 sound.


Carl


Carl, I like your taste in music - Ayreon rocks. Are you a progger?

[uofmtiger]

The iPods (all of them) are better-sounding I have heard plenty reviews stating an opposing opinion. I think the Shuffle is the best sounding that I have heard, though.

I have a Creative Zen Micro and it does have a few limitiations compared to the iPod. The main issue is the sensitivity of the buttons. This can be very annoying if you want to select an artist/album quickly. I still use it more than my iPods because it is Rhapsody-to-go compatible and the iPods are not. Also, the battery on the Creative player is removable and the iPod (in theory) is not.

[qboneus]

I have a Iriver h10 20 gig.
Aside from having to restore some system files once it is a great player.
Battery life in excess of 12 hrs.

I personally like the sound of the iriver better than the Ispod and I've listened to the same music, with the same headphones, ripped off of the same files, off the same laptop with both and the iriver has it over the ipod in all areas (i admit it was only an ipod shuffle) but thats why I have left the features comparison out of my addressing the differences betwixt the two.

The looks are another...eww are all ipods ever ugly.... the Iriver I have has a nice dark blue brushed aluminum case.
YMMV

Tal

[Fast_Eddie]

I have a Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen. I got it about 3 years ago and I really like it. I chose it over an I Pod because, at least at that time, it was a good deal less expensive.

[seadzz]

I'd second the iRiver product line. Have it installed in my car ahd it holds over 3000 songs at 200kbps+ which is considered very high. Battery lasts 12-14 hours.

Visit www.misticriver.net to get more user input.

sdz

[THOR]

I got my son a 6GB Zen Micro (black) it was about $180 and it is too cool for school. I wanted an Ipod but now I want the Zen Micro.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7367413&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat63100050014&id=1122654295639

[kb12]

anyone second the rio karma?

[PioneerHPMLuver]

I had an Ipod and liked it's intuitivenes and thought it sounded great. Didn't like the short battery life and hated the iTunes software you must use to load it. Can't do any sharing and so fourth. I have a Muvo TX 1GB player and love that it shows up as a hard drive on your computer and you just drag and drop files into it. I think it sounds great. I use mine mostly for portable listening with external speakers, for camping, canoeing and tailgating and such. I like the fact it uses AAA batteries that last about 10 hours...I also have an MPIO FL-100 that that you can expand it's memory with MMC cards. I have several 512MB cards and some 128 and 256MB cards. On any given trip, or outing I go on I have over a hundred albums to choose from, or I have made custom playlists. The players will go until the batteries die, and you don't have to keep changing CD's or tapes. I like that. I'll bring them along to parties with an RCA audio cable adapter, plug it into the home stereo tape inputs and plenty of tunes non stop for everyone. Using WMA's at 96KPS or higher is pretty good fidelity for me.

[uofmtiger]

anyone second the rio karma? It has a big following on Hydrogen forums (at least it used to when I was over there more often). I like the fact that it plays FLAC.

[BeerCan]

In addition the karma has a base that has real rca jacks and not a 1/8" for the line out

[Inspiribomb]

First of all, what will be its main use - working out, car/plane rides, etc? If you want something to work out with, don't go with a hard-drive based player. Would you pick up your computer and shake it around? Didn't think so. If you won't be working out with it, Creative makes some of the best MP3 players out there, with the most powerful headphone amps and highest quality sound. I had the Nomad Zen Xtra and it was a great MP3 player. For flash based players, the options are nearly endless. I like the iPod shuffle because of how simple it is and it plugs into a USB port directly, but you can find others in that price range that do more. Do your research and determine what it is you want it to do.

[sydsfloyd67]

Hmm, well the iPod Nano is the only one that is not a hard drive if I understand correctly. If you asked me, I'd say the spinning hard drive and any battery technology is incompatible.

The other aspect is that it apears that MP3 player manufacturers are avoiding the superior removable camera media on purpose in a marketing ploy.

Therefore, the Korean CF card player NEX-II is my suggestion. Sound is very highly rated among the likes of iRiver and others when it first came out, sounds as good as the better players to me. I stared with 128Mb, then 500, and now use a 2 gig CF card (which maxes out the original model for power consumption). With the new model NEX, next year, maybe 4 gigs or more? Then you can have multiple cards..... -sf

[CarlV]

Carl, I like your taste in music - Ayreon rocks. Are you a progger?
I listen to a fair amount of prog. Ayreon is great music. :)

Carl

[thedelihaus]

The Creative line is supposed to have marginally superior sound over an iPod prior to the release of the new video model which supposedly makes the 5th generation iPod on par with it. So check out the Creative line.

I personally use an iPod and here's why- for me it's convenient and easy to use, something I needed after winding up in the hospital after a pretty severe accident. Prior to that it was a cd player and I had no desire for an mp3 player. But 15,000 songs at my convenience sold me. Note there are ways around the file-sharing compatability issues people claim limit the apple product. In setting up your iTunes software, you can choose AIFF format (uncompressed), or MP3 format at a bunch of different bitrates (high and low) to suit your tastes and will play on ANY universal mp3 player. The iTunes software is set up as a default to record in apple's preferred AAC format (basically MP4) but this is easily changed in its preferences. And AAC/MP4 is a format that is growing in popularity, some car stereos will now play both MP3 and AAC/MP4 burned/recorded discs.There's also Apple's proprietary format called Apple Lossless, which keeps an almost perfect reproduction of an AAIF file at half the size. This is, however, strictly an iPod format.

iPods may scratch easily, but that's why I keep my ipod in a case (one of hundreds available). And I agree the battery can end up being an issue, but firsthand me or my friends have yet to have a problem. So far so good.

[Inspiribomb]

iPods may scratch easily, but that's why I keep my ipod in a case (one of hundreds available). And I agree the battery can end up being an issue, but firsthand me or my friends have yet to have a problem. So far so good.

All Ni-MH or whatever they use fade over time. For 20 bucks and a minimal amount of effort, you can replace the batteries in iPods and have them going longer than ever.

[JimmyNeutron]

All Ni-MH or whatever they use fade over time. For 20 bucks and a minimal amount of effort, you can replace the batteries in iPods and have them going longer than ever.


Ya know Inspi, a lot of us here on this forum can rig a solar panel to run an ipod after the battery dies. But many, many more people can't even set their VCR clocks correctly, and asking them to pry open their magically spacious music thingie just won't cut it. My niece just upgraded to the newer and more expensive version - and that's EXACTLY what Apple is counting on - that most people's lack of ingenouity (?) will lead them to upgrade than to replace.
Had Apple offered user replaceable off the shelf batteries you can bet your pancakes the ipod would not have as many decendants as it does now, thus making Apple a less profitable return. But hey, isin't that what capatilism is all about? :D

[Inspiribomb]

Ya know Inspi, a lot of us here on this forum can rig a solar panel to run an ipod after the battery dies. But many, many more people can't even set their VCR clocks correctly, and asking them to pry open their magically spacious music thingie just won't cut it.

You're probably right. Another reason I didn't get one was because I didn't want to jump on the bandwagon. Sheesh, around campus (and other places I'm sure) these have become a status symbol. I've never been one to follow the crowd.

PS - Just thought I'd add that today I bought the Creative Muvo TX FM 256 mB player. FM tuner, straps to my arm for working out and sounds great, all for 60 bucks. Oh, and you don't need a USB cable, it plugs right into your USB port.

[paba]

Are any of these HDD based units able to feed a USB DAC directly? or via some docking station? It seems you need a certain USB mode to do this that only personal computers can do. Sorry I'm new to all this.
Or is there a unit or dock station that can send out music via a digital out.
I guess I want a solution that doesn't involve a PC next to my stereo. And I want to use a higher quality dac than what is provided with these devices.

What about units like Olive inc's and Fedelio... do they output music by another jack besides the RCA's? To bypass their internal DACs?

Thanks
paba

[Fast_Eddie]

Many of the newer Creative units have a user replaceable battery. Pretty good idea. I took the cover off mine once to see how hard it would be. Looks like getting at it is easy. It solders in, but that shouldn't be a big deal. Wonder where I could get a replacement though. So far it's working fine, but it doesn't last as long as it did when it was new about 3 years ago.

Take care,

Ed

[tropicalian]

My suggestion:
iRiver h120 - 20gb. discontinued. found on you know what auction site.

optical input
optical output
AM/FM worldband radio
built in microphone
ability to connect additional microphone
ability to record stereo quality (or less for dictating)
looong battery life (12-15 hours it seems)
no silly software required to transfer music (itunes..bleh)
plays all sorts of formats
firmware upgradeable
monochrome screen conserves battery life
also acts as an external HD...plug and play via USB 2.0
backlit in-line remote
exceptional sound quality (optical out is amazing!)
I have it setup through my KA-907 Kenwood integrated powering my Yamaha NS-1000 monitors. I can't imagine a better way to improve this setup other than using the optical out instead of the 1/8" output.

If you have doubts, give it a try. If you have more questions, PM me. I wholly suggest this as being far far better than the iPod. They also come in 40gb flavors.

Check the forum, loads of good suggestions.
http://www.misticriver.net/

I used to have Hi-MD. Before that I had Net-MD. Before that I had Sony Discman. It will take an act of a higher power to get me back to Sony. I've seen too many iPods die an early death to trust the marketing hype. Yeah, iPod is good, but there is better out there.
YMMV :)