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best for me .. the cheapskate

post #1 of 20
12/12/03 at 6:05pm
Thread Starter 
ok, well i am at the point where I am looking for the best portable cheapo I can get. I will not spend more than $50 (would like to spend less than that). my OLD setup? I had a Sony D-245. Did I like it? You bet. Why get something else? Broken .

What am I looking for? Something that can drive my SR-80's.

Portable CD Player? If it can play CD-r.
MiniDisc? If it can be done for a good price.
Portable Flash mp3 player? Only if it has 128mb of memory.
Hard Drive mp3 Player? I am not looking to buy empty demo units or broken ones so I am thinking these are out of the question.

Why only $50? Well because I will not be using this thing more than a few times durring the whole year. I want to know I have something should the long road-trip or plane ride come up.

I realize I am working with almost no budget and I dont even know if something falls under this category. I don't want el-crappo but I am not looking for some japanese only minidisc player or some legendary Sony classic either. Just something that has enough output from a headphone jack ot power SR-80s.
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post #2 of 20
12/12/03 at 6:43pm
Take a look at this Aiwa thread, it seems like the most interesting new budget player that's been discussed here recently.
http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showt...highlight=aiwa

Otherwise, there's always Ebay, you could probably find another 245 fairly cheap if you're patient.
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post #3 of 20
12/12/03 at 6:46pm
What about the iRiver imp-50 (cd player)? You can get for about 50, proberly a littile less, and iriver makes good products. It proberly outdated, but they're making some good stuff (IMO).
I dont know if it can power your sr-80's, but check 'em out.
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post #4 of 20
12/12/03 at 7:29pm
Thread Starter 
yea if i could get an imp50 shipped for $50 that'd be the one I would get but ... there seems to be a nation wide shortage of these damned things. Iriver's store is out of them ... ebay has ONE for a buy it now price of more than irivers own store.

bleh .. mp3/cd that wont skip and has enough power for sr80s .. that'd be my dream setup.

otherwise .. anyone have some input on some good sonys that go for under 50 on ebay usually? remember they gotta play cdr .. which is why I am reluctant to go with anything older (my d-245 was very picky about this).

i almost was looking at the riovolts but from what i hear .. well .. they are crap.
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post #5 of 20
12/12/03 at 7:50pm
The original Rio Volt SP100 and the SP250 are OK. Avoid all the newer ones, i.e. the volt 50, 150, 350 etc.
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post #6 of 20
12/13/03 at 3:20am
Thread Starter 
is there any minidisc players worth having for $50? seems like they have really good battery life and good headphone outs (atleast better than most of the modern sony pcdps)
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post #7 of 20
12/13/03 at 3:25am
Quote:
Originally posted by digitalemperor
is there any minidisc players worth having for $50? seems like they have really good battery life and good headphone outs (atleast better than most of the modern sony pcdps)
well...minidisc players may be cheap, you need a recorder to record minidiscs... players are more of a luxury item because you must own a recorder
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post #8 of 20
12/13/03 at 7:59am
Quote:
Originally posted by digitalemperor
yea if i could get an imp50 shipped for $50 that'd be the one I would get but ... there seems to be a nation wide shortage of these damned things. Iriver's store is out of them ... ebay has ONE for a buy it now price of more than irivers own store.
You can get it for <$50 all these places:
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?pr...&price=between

Or at J&R (in stock)
http://www.jandr.com/JRProductPage.p...feed.IRV+IMP50

and you can read about the player here:
http://iriver.com/product/info.asp?p_name=iMP-50

I supports cd-r(w) as well as wma/mp3-cds

Cheers
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post #9 of 20
12/13/03 at 10:56am
I just tested but returned a Sony D-EJ756CK, which was less than 50 bucks. Decent sound and plays MP3 CDs. For casual listening, it was a nice little player (I'm looking for a different sound so trying the vintage route at the moment).

There's a 756 for sale in the Gear for Sale forum, for ~35 bucks, shipped. If you want a more classic sound and not worried about skipping, there's a D-101 for about the same price. I just picked up a 101 and like the sound better than the 756, but it's a desk-bound player (no anti-skip).
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post #10 of 20
12/13/03 at 12:53pm
Don't worry about CDRs, if you buy any CD player made in the last 3-4 years, they almost ALWAYS play CDRs. CDRWs probably NOT though.
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post #11 of 20
12/13/03 at 2:05pm
Thread Starter 
... the EJ756CK plays mp3s?!

ack I am not too sure about this but if thats the case .. sweet!
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post #12 of 20
12/13/03 at 2:14pm
It plays MP3 CDs, not MP3s copyed to an internal storage device.

With MP3 CD, you copy MP3 files to a CD, with the advantage being tons of music on one media. You can then take this one CD with you as opposed to several.

I've never tried it so have no idea of the sound quality of MP3 CD, but from what you stated about casual use, I suspect this would work out well for you.

Take a peek at the Sony site for more info on the technology.
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post #13 of 20
12/13/03 at 3:07pm
Thread Starter 
every site i have read about the EJ756CK does not list mp3 cd compatibility. I think you may have it mistaken for another model. I know what you mean by mp3cd and not mp3s ... you mean CD-r's with mp3's copied to it.

I can not find one single page (including sony's own) listing mp3 cd capabilities.
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post #14 of 20
12/13/03 at 3:41pm
Quote:
Originally posted by drp
I just tested but returned a Sony D-EJ756CK, which was less than 50 bucks. Decent sound and plays MP3 CDs. For casual listening, it was a nice little player (I'm looking for a different sound so trying the vintage route at the moment).

There's a 756 for sale in the Gear for Sale forum, for ~35 bucks, shipped. If you want a more classic sound and not worried about skipping, there's a D-101 for about the same price. I just picked up a 101 and like the sound better than the 756, but it's a desk-bound player (no anti-skip).
You got it wrong, drp. The D-EJ756CK does NOT play MP3 CDs. You're confusing MP3 CD playback capability with CD-RW compatibility. The D-EJ756CK DOES play back CD-RWs that were mastered as normal Redbook music CDs.

Of those Sony players in the D-EJ756CK generation (last year), only the D-CJ01 and the D-CJ500 series can play back MP3 CDs. Sadly, the D-CJ### series have been scrapped this year in favour of the D-NE/NF### series, which are ATRAC3-based CD portables.
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post #15 of 20
12/13/03 at 4:56pm

DOH!!!!

I think I'll modify that little splash of flashing red in my avatar to instead appear on my cheeks. I just realized (okay, after reading these posts) that I was confusing the 756 with another player that I was also testing. Not the definition of the functionality, but the model features. Guess my head is still recovering from a maniacal CD player search.

So much for sound, reliable advise. Wicked, wicked sorry about that!!!
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