Trying to find inexpensive MP3 player, advice welcome

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28 Feb 2005, 02:06 AM
Diff-chan

Quote:

Originally Posted by sphere79

That's OK, as any iPod user can tell you you're better off converting your MP3's to AAC anyway.

Im an iPod user, and 95% of my songs are in mp3 format, and its fine. Songs I import are imported to mp3, not AAC. So there goes your theory.

Quote:

"The iPod is "sexy"... bla bla bla"

Whats wrong with enjoying how an electronic device looks? Especially one youre gonna be using for 2-3 hours a day? Id rather have something attractive than not.

Quote:

Yes, you can - just not as easily or on nearly as many computers as with an Archos and quite frankly most other MP3 players. It doesn't need to be put in a special mode, doesn't need Windows XP or 2000, doesn't need a 22MB program, doesn't hide your music or make accessing individual albums or files a pain in the ass, doesn't need a custom 3rd party app - you just plug it in and go.

By "custom 3rd party app", do you mean Windows Explorer?

Quote:

"what about the click wheel?"

The click wheel does everything I need it to do, and takes about 15 seconds to get used to. Its a great solution to a problem that no other digital player manufacturer has figured out as elegantly, how to navigate through thousands of songs with a tiny-ass screen easily.

Your hatred of the iPod, a perfectly respectable and in fact excellent device on the marketplace, is irrational and idiotic.

Quote:

Sony MP3 CD Walkman. I got one for $100 back in summer 2002, and it's just as good as any other MP3 player out there, maybe even better because you can archive all your favorite MP3s on CD and play them at will.

MP3 CD players are the fucking ghetto of portable digital music players.
28 Feb 2005, 03:13 AM
MarkRyan

Quote:

Originally Posted by link1110

Sony MP3 CD Walkman. I got one for $100 back in summer 2002, and it's just as good as any other MP3 player out there, maybe even better because you can archive all your favorite MP3s on CD and play them at will.

I got an MP3 CD player, and I hardly use it :/ Burning CDs with the music I want--only 700MB of music per disc--is sort of a bother. But worst of all is trying to browse through files on it. All the accessing times and shit sucks. They're nice and cheap these days, though.

And sphere79, how can you be so anti iPod Nazis when you're being the most obnoxious with your player of choice? None of the iPod supporters are making it sound like a sin to use anything else. But you are.

Anyway, of all the players I've used, iPod easily has the best interface. I still haven't bought a player of my own yet, but when I do it'll likely be an iPod. Everything else I've used has ugly menus, "now loading/accessing" screens, and I haven't seen anything with a feature comparable to iPod's on-the-go playlist (at least not as easily accessible).

I just wish the iPod didn't have such a shiny backside. So ugly.
28 Feb 2005, 03:29 AM
sphere79

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grave

Wow. I respect your opinion and all, but shut the fuck up, you're a god damned idiot. I'm tired of hearing this crap, people only buy iPods because it's the cool thing to do!!!nyearrrrgh. Get over yourself.

Where did I say people are only buying it because it's "the cool thing to do"? They could be buying it because Bono is in the commerical flailing around like an idiot, who knows.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grave

You act like iPod users are trying to brainwash people into getting iPods for some inexplicable reason, because "everyone" is doing it. You know what? Maybe there's a good reason for it.

I act the way I act because of how SOME iPod owners act about anyone who wants to use something other than an iPod.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grave

There's nothing wrong with having an mp3 player that looks good and has a good interface. It does everything I want and nothing less. You claim to be impartial on the subject, but it seems like you have a severe problem with people who make the informed, conscious choice to buy an iPod despite the other players on the market.

You want me to "get over myself", yet you embody the very attitude I was initialy referencing. You're right, there is nothing wrong with having an MP3 player that "looks good" and has a "good interface". There's also nothing wrong with using those things to defend your choice in using the product. Personally, I've purchased tons of electronics over the years, and while aesthetics and looks are a factor - they have never been on the top of the list in importance. Interface would obviously be higher up on the list but that has greatly improved in recent generation MP3 players pretty much across the board.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grave

We have our reasons, you have yours. If you don't respect the buying habits of others, why should you expect anyone else to give a shit about yours?

I haven't told anyone to shut the fuck up, have I? I'm not trying to get iPod owners to switch over to something else. The thread is titled, "Trying to find inexpensive MP3 player, advice welcome" and I offered my advice. There is a small, fairly inexpensive one that many people don't know about and I recommended it. Apparently, a few people found it useful, others made different recommendations but all of us are on the defensive from the iPod crowd. I wonder why? The bottom line is the majority out there own iPods but it's only a select few who are totalitarian about it. Yes, I was defensive off the bat about "iPod Nazi's" - it's from my past experiences with not always agreeing with them and suffering the consequences.

Quote:

Originally Posted by diffusionx

Im an iPod user, and 95% of my songs are in mp3 format, and its fine. Songs I import are imported to mp3, not AAC. So there goes your theory.

It was not a theory, I was making a joke about iPod fanatics prophesizing Apple's AAC format. Hence the comments about mowing lawns and what not.

Quote:

Originally Posted by diffusionx

By "custom 3rd party app", do you mean Windows Explorer?

I was reffering to those (homebrew, actually) apps that allow the iPod to work without iTunes, with older Windows, etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by diffusionx

Your hatred of the iPod, a perfectly respectable and in fact excellent device on the marketplace, is irrational and idiotic.

I don't hate the thing, just some of it's users. I think it's idiotic that some people would think a slick, shiny brushed aluminum box with a dot-matrix LCD screen and a few buttons resembles a "taint" or fecal matter. It's just a piece of electronics for christ's sake - which reminds me, I've exhausted too much energy on this subject as it is. Let's just agree to fucking disagree, OK?

Quote:

Originally Posted by diffusionx

MP3 CD players are the fucking ghetto of portable digital music players.

Truer words were never spoken. But they are cheap and have better battery set-ups......

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarkRyan

None of the iPod supporters are making it sound like a sin to use anything else. But you are.

I am? Where did I make it sound like a sin to use one or even put down iPod owners as a group? I have been going on a bit, I apoligize. There was actually a nice spot of "reporting" in the local paper (Hartford Courant) last week - a whole section with no less than 8 iPod related articles, seriously. It probably has added some fuel to my posting. Mind you, it wasn't so much the section alone that irked me - it was the ridiculous, one-sided gushing coming from every one of the "news" articles. One of them went on about how wonderful it will be to have nothing but online stores because the CD will soon be dead - I hope the idiot author spends $300 on music and loses it all. Not everyone has nor will ever have access to the internet, and without brick and mortar you totally lose the human, communication experience. Another on podcasting made it sound like in order to even listen to them you'll need an iPod (which if you've just heard the term might seem logical), never mind that a whole chunk of people using it have NO MP3 player at all. Anyway..... I'm done.

My wife posted this on her Blog December 26th, 2004:
Holy Crap! Holy Crap! Holy Crap!

I got a new Mp3 player for Xmas! Can you tell I'm a bit excited? I was so not expecting it!! I freaked to say the least. I've had my old one for 2 1/2 years and sure I wanted a new one, but lets face it, they are expensive and I didn't think I would get one. I figured I would buy it next year sometime.

But my WONDERFUL hubby, MIL, BIL and FIL bought it for me! Want to see how pretty she is? My new Mp3 player? This is what she looks like:

Go here to learn more about it. It's made by Archos and it's called the Gmini. I had an Archos before. It's SO small!

Should she have "shut the fuck up" as well? She claims the unit is "pretty" (one of those nice subjective terms) but some iPod owners say it looks like the skin between an ass and balls or a load of shit. She looks like a good candidate for some iPod re-programming, no?

Here's a PM reply I got from another forum - he was asking about the iPod Photo (he currently has an old Archos) and I recommended the GMini 400:
Thanks for the info... a coworker actually just bought the GMini so I'm holding off on my purchase til I can check it out. The main thing will be storage space and photo capabilities (so I can travel occasionally with just camera and player and leave the laptop behind), but the whole "proprietary everything" nature of iPod has me skittish.

Doesn't he know the iPod is SEXY!!!
28 Feb 2005, 06:19 AM
AstroBlue

Quote:

Originally Posted by OmniGear

I don't see how an MD player can be argued to be better than an MP3 player.

Mix tapes. "I've compiled a playlist and uploaded it to your iPod", isn't as good as handcrafting a minidisc/tape and writing a label for it and giving it to a friend.

Fucking whippersnappers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grave

Have iPods burned your house down? Was your first-born child killed by Steve Jobs?

:lol:
28 Feb 2005, 08:40 AM
Yoshi

Quote:

Originally Posted by sphere79

My wife posted this on her Blog December 26th, 2004:
Holy Crap! Holy Crap! Holy Crap!

I got a new Mp3 player for Xmas! Can you tell I'm a bit excited? I was so not expecting it!! I freaked to say the least. I've had my old one for 2 1/2 years and sure I wanted a new one, but lets face it, they are expensive and I didn't think I would get one. I figured I would buy it next year sometime.

But my WONDERFUL hubby, MIL, BIL and FIL bought it for me! Want to see how pretty she is? My new Mp3 player? This is what she looks like:

Go here to learn more about it. It's made by Archos and it's called the Gmini. I had an Archos before. It's SO small!

You married a woman who rambles like an idiot and has a blog. Why should we assume your taste in portable electronics is better?
28 Feb 2005, 01:16 PM
Omni

Quote:

Originally Posted by AstroBlue

Mix tapes. "I've compiled a playlist and uploaded it to your iPod", isn't as good as handcrafting a minidisc/tape and writing a label for it and giving it to a friend.

Fucking whippersnappers.

I could still always burn a CD and give it to a friend if I wanted to. :wtf:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yoshi

You married a woman who rambles like an idiot and has a blog. Why should we assume your taste in portable electronics is better?

:lol: Probably the greatest thing you've ever said.
28 Feb 2005, 05:41 PM
sphere79

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yoshi

You married a woman who rambles like an idiot and has a blog. Why should we assume your taste in portable electronics is better?

http://www.sphere79.com/akitty2.jpg

My taste in women (and electronics) is just fine, thank you.
28 Feb 2005, 05:47 PM
Cowdisease

Quote:

Originally Posted by sphere79

http://www.sphere79.com/akitty2.jpg

My taste in women (and electronics) is just fine, thank you.

Waiting for someone to reply, 'No, it isn't."
28 Feb 2005, 06:56 PM
bandit

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cowdisease

Waiting for someone to reply, 'No, it isn't."

No, it isnt
28 Feb 2005, 07:44 PM
GohanX

Well Sphere, as the originator of this thread, I'd like to thank you for your advice on the Archos. As well as everyone else's help on minidiscs, Creative players, iPods, etc.

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